


Virus Among Us

by Yemi Hikari (Yemi_Hikari)



Series: ... Among Us [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Krolia, August 2016 Challenge, F/M, Family Secrets, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses, Keiht & Shiro (Voltron) are Full Siblings, Keith & Shiro (Voltron) are Biological Siblings, Mystery, One-Sided Pidge | Katie Holt/Shiro (Voltron), Self-Esteem Issues, Suspense, just write it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-10
Updated: 2017-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:53:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 35,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25178728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yemi_Hikari/pseuds/Yemi%20Hikari
Summary: Keith finds himself struggling with things said in the past when Lance says something to trigger unfavorable memories. This creates tension between him and Shiro. Tensions increase even more among all of the paladins when Keith becomes ill unexpectedly, tying into a secret regarding Keith and Shiro.
Relationships: Allura/Keith (Voltron), Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron)
Series: ... Among Us [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1822483
Kudos: 3
Collections: (Prompts) Just Write It, Angst and Hurt/Comfort Prompts, Interspecies, Platonic Relationships, Siblings, Voltron: Shiro & Keith - Biological Brothers





	1. Alien Feelings

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [27twinsister](https://archiveofourown.org/users/27twinsister/pseuds/27twinsister) in the [angstandhcprompts](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/angstandhcprompts) collection. 



> Disclaimer – I don't own Voltron: Legendary Defender. This story was written for Wattpad's August 2016 challenge, which was to write anything which was 10,000 words or more, so I decided to expand upon 'Virus Among Us', particularly since one of the anonymous reviewers was correct in saying "there's no real desire to flesh them out in a unique way", as I was aiming at a simple piece. That said, the one-shot does not need to be read to understand this piece. I also like working with the theory that Shiro and Keith are brothers. This story also puts a twist on the Keith is alien theory.

The group atmosphere felt wrong, making Keith's stomach clench, and yet the teen could see Hunk, Pidge, and Lance eating up the experience, attaching themselves to Shiro like glue. The black paladin took everything in stride, taking on the role of leadership with ease. Watching everyone for some reason made bile rise to Keith's throat, but he didn't know why watching the four upset him like it did, or maybe he knew full well. Heading off to train seemed like a far better option than thinking too hard about how he felt, particularly when he struggled with losing his temper at the wrong moments.

Closing his eyes as he sat there, ignoring the others yammer away at whatever subject the yellow, blue and green paladins decided to talk about, his memories flickered to the first time Shiro told him patience yields focus. Keith's jaw clenched shut remembering the laughter of his classmates as they called him a bastard child, only for his fist to fly leading him to have an aching jaw. Shiro sat in front of him with his arms folded, jaw set firmly in a stern manner, only to melt away into worry. Keith also remembered the time he told Shiro, " _no, you don't get how I feel. I'm the unwanted orphan, while you're actually wanted._ "

" _That's not true._ " Keith though Shiro would tell him he was also unwanted, but instead told him something which stuck like glue. " _I want you. You're my little brother after all. You're my only little brother._ "

The bile rose to Keith's throat, his eyes opening to see the other three chatting away. " _Not anymore. Plus, a half-sibling is a half-sibling anyway you look at it. Why else would they ship me off like that, if I weren't a half-sibling._ " The red paladin shook his head, the corners twisting up slightly, remembering what Hunk said after the first time they formed Voltron without being in the midst of battle. " _No. We're all family. Shiro may have other brothers now, and even sisters, but so do I._ "

Keith's eyes narrowed just as Lance looked at him, staring. "What's so funny?"

The red paladin's eyes blinked, his mouth opening like a fish as panic welled through his mind, causing a tightening of the chest and throat. Instead of answering he shook his head, looking down at the floor, his hands hanging limp from his knees, palms facing himself.

"Are you sure you're not some alien?"

Keith felt a sudden panic eating away at the back of his mind, a sweat breaking out across his body. He glanced up, wishing to sock Lance in the jaw, but caught the rather exasperated look Shiro gave him, indicating he should take things with stride. "Not going there."

The blue paladin's hand's held up, almost as if he were begging Keith to get into a fight with him. "Come on! You pushed the button and opened the hatch I couldn't. You know, the one that looked like a handprint."

Shiro rubbed the back of his neck, the color draining from his face. "Lance. You're not being very nice right now."

"Come on! There isn't any other explanation!"

Pidge let out a sigh, pushing up her glasses. "Explanation for what?"

"Why Keith was able to push the handprint button? It was a handprint button for crying out loud." Lance leaned back, letting his arms drape across the back of the couch, his lips twisted into a frown. He glared at Keith venomously.

"It's a freaking button, Lance! Please tell me you're not doing this crap because you didn't think of putting your hand on the handprint because that's just lame!" Keith ground his jaw together.

"Says the person who thought it a good idea to go in guns blazing back there!"

Two dark blue eyes looked at the ground rather than his fellow paladins. "That's got..."

"Enough!' Shiro's voice rose up, making a shiver run down Keith's spine, knowing what the tone meant. "It's a button."

"Yeah. You don't need to access a computer to push a button."

"Yeah, but it's..."

"Stop." Keith looked up, a world of feelings and memories coming back. In the back of his head, he could hear the voices telling him what they felt he was - the bastard child of that woman, whose real father, unlike Shiro's was unknown.

His blue eyes widened, watching Shiro rub the back of his neck, the older paladin's mouth flickering for a bit as if he was avoiding something. "Lance..."

"You..." The red paladin swallowed, his sudden utterance making Shiro look him in the eye. Keith stood up. "I'm not going to put up with this. I'm going to go train."

The door swished open and closed before Shiro regained his composure to look Lance in the eyes. "Now look what you've done."

"What?" Lance shrugged his shoulders. "I don't get why Keith can't take a bit of teasing."

"What..." The black paladin's tone darkened, only for two dark eyes to close quickly.

"So you knew the button was a button?" Hunk's eyes widened.

"I mean, it was like Total Recall. Having a handprint shape doesn't mean it's for scanning hands. If it were for scanning hands, then there would have been this light thingy that flickered around. I mean, it was totally a button, and not a scanner, and who hasn't seen Total Recall. It's like, a sci-fi classic."

"Keith hasn't," Shiro muttered, before pushing himself up from the seat. "At least he hadn't when I left for the Kerberos mission." Lance's eyes blinked a couple of times in confusion. I'm going to go and do some damage control."

"Wait..."

…

Sweat covered Keith's body. but not because he'd managed to work up a sweat. Instead, the hot, sticky feeling from when Lance brought up the idea of a certain someone being an alien. A hand wiped his brow, trying not to think about the conversation, pissed off that Lance had managed to irk him so easily.

"Training session end."

Keith's eyes widened, recognizing the voice coming from behind him, his body turning as his dark blue eyes flashed with anger. He swung his bayard, making it disappear. "Shiro..."

One of the older paladin's eyes darted up, his arms crossed. "If you want to come after me, then do."

"That's so not a fair!" The red paladin felt his hands clench together, as well as his jaw. "I could never beat you in a fight!"

"I don't know. You've done a lot of improving, and I'm not exactly my old self." Shiro's facial features softened. "Maybe you could finally take me in a sparring match."

"Don't you dare talk to me about sparring matches when we've not even had one since..." Keith felt the words snap in his throat. "Since..."

"Since I left?" The black paladin looked away. "I get the fact I've neglected you."

"Shiro..." The red paladin let an irritated growl escape through his lips, the breath not registering on his lips. "How would it look if the leader showed favoritism towards his little brother?"

The sound coming from Shiro's lips indicated the older teen's feelings were hurt, and the nineteen-year-olds eyes reflected this. "That..." Instead of finishing, the black paladin looked at the ground again, his arms crossing again. "Do the others even know we're siblings? We don't exactly share the same last name anymore. Not since..."

Keith saw the flicker of pain in Shiro's eyes as the nineteen-year-old looked up again. "Don't. Shiro. You know full well you can't give me special treatment. Whether they know or not, that stays the same. Plus, if you suddenly start giving me special treatment, they'll know."

The look on Shiro's face he honestly couldn't read at that moment. "So you don't want them to know?"

"I..." The red paladin took a deep breath. "I've not said anything because I thought you didn't want to talk about it with them."

"What..." The black paladin suddenly sounded tired. "Keith, please tell me you don't think I'm ashamed of you or something."

Keith felt his jaw and neck muscles tightened up. "Shiro..." Closing his dark blue eyes, he swallowed. "Aren't you aware of the fact I got kicked out of the garrison for disciplinary issues?"

"So?" Shiro's voice sounded even more tired, and Keith looked up, watching as his older brothers eyes closed. "Isn't that my fault? I should have been there for you."

"Stop!" The red paladin found his voice rising, his head shaking. "Don't you dare blame yourself for something that wasn't in your control! Plus, you taught me everything I needed to know to control my temper, but I choose not to heed what you taught me. So it's my fault."

"Well, you should never, ever think I'd ever be ashamed of you."

Keith felt a nasty feeling in the back of his head, watching Shiro's posture begin to freeze up. "Why the hell would you think I'm thinking that!"

"Because I know you're mad at me!" Shiro's arms flailed slightly, as he tried to control his emotions, making one of Keith's eyes twitch. "You gave me one of those looks of yours, and you're giving me another one now. You're annoyed with you."

"Annoyed with you?" Keith let out a laugh, not realizing his tone of voice indicated what Shiro thought.

"I told you. I'd never, ever be disappointed in you. Please..."

"I told you, I know that." Keith narrowed his eyes.

"You thought I didn't want them to know we're brothers. Why? This isn't because..." Shiro's eyes glazed over, becoming distant, his speaking stopping.

The red paladin stepped forward, biting down on his bottom lip. "You didn't think I noticed?" Keith watched Shiro flinch. "Come on Shiro. You're my brother. I know your fighting style. I've seen you flinch like you are now." His own arms crossed his chest. "I can't even imagine what all happened to you, but..." Keith swallowed, looking away. "... you've got enough on your plate without being reminded of our crappy family circumstances."

Shiro's eyes closed. "Keith..."

"What."

"You're angry with me. Why? If not because you think I'm ashamed of you, then why?" The black paladin's voice strained. "Why are you mad at me?"

Keith took a deep breath. "I told you, you don't need to be reminded of our crappy family circumstances."

"What..." A confused look appeared on Shiro's face, making Keith look at the ground.

"Fine. I'm mad because you know something. Lance asking if I'm some kind of alien brought it up. You know something about my real dad." A sharp pain hit him in the jaw, and Keith found himself seeing nothing as his body crashed into something. A groan escaped his lips.

"Keith, I'm so sorry." Shiro's voice pierced the darkness, and the red paladin's vision began to clear. "I didn't mean to. I really didn't. I just..."

The silhouette became clear, and Keith could see Shiro's entire body trembling. His head leaned back. "Crap. What happened." A silence fell over the room, and he finally snapped his head up. "Seriously..."

"I'm what happened. I'm going to get you to a cryostasis pod. I think, I just need to stay away from you."

"What, no. Shiro..." Keith felt his brother lift him up.

"No. I lost control back there. I know..." Shiro's head leaned forward. "You're actually not the only one with an anger issue."

"What..." The red paladin let out a sigh, before tilting his head. "No. I somehow managed to do something to really tick you off. I've seen you like this before. What did I do."

"You..." The black paladin's eyes closed shut. "Don't ever say we've got different fathers again. Don't you ever say mom cheated on our father. It never..." Keith could feel the emotional pain emanating from Shiro. "Mother and father loved each other dearly. You've got to understand that."

"I promise."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of the reasons for the theory of Keith being Galra ties into the fact the red paladin supposedly uses Galra tech that the others can not, but there is a major difference between pushing a button, and a hand scanner, let alone using a prosthetic arm to access Galra tech. The other reason is because Zarkon comments on Keith fighting like a Galra, and yet ones fighting style has nothing to do with genetics, but temperament. Still, I liked the theory of Keith having alien DNA simply because it is fun to play around with in fanfiction.


	2. Aniki, Otouto

Promising Shiro he wouldn't say "it" didn't make him stop thinking about "it". He would rub the back of his neck, his eyes diverted to the ground. Lance had put an idea into his head, and when an idea got into the red paladin's head it stuck. Glancing up at Shiro, he could easily see how tired his older brother looked. Keith took a deep breath, wondering exactly how much of a burden he would end up being, remembering full well who'd attempted to take on the task of raising him when nobody else in their family would.

"Hey." Lance's voice piped up. "I know you're mad at me because of the joke I played on you yesterday, but did you have to take it out on Shiro?"

Keith's head darted up, the blue paladin's voice quieter than usual so as to not draw attention to himself and the other paladin. "Butt out Lance. This is none of your business."

The red paladin felt a sudden itch and reached up to scratch his neck absentmindedly. "Oh, come on. Our little joke had nothing to do with him. Why'd you have to go and pick a fight with him, and end up in the cryo freeze?"

The red paladin's eyes widened, his throat feeling dry as he scratched another spot. He could see Shiro's eyes dart up, a worried expression on his face. Keith gave the black paladin a half-smile. "Seriously Lance, you have no idea what happened between me and Shiro. You've got no right to..."

Keith stood up then, his finger making to poke Lance in the chest, only for a wave of dizziness to wash over him. His knees buckled under him, and he heard Shiro moving to catch him under the armpits. "I've got you, buddy."

Shiro lowered him to the seat as Keith felt his entire body shake. Something wasn't right, and he couldn't place his finger on what exactly was wrong, other than the fact his body was now aching all over, and he felt strangely cold. His throat was dry, his stomach queasy, and his entire body itched. One of his hands reached up to scratch, only for Shiro to grab his hand. "Don't..."

Keith's eyes widened as Shiro pressed his forehead against his, and a deep breath escaped his lips. "Shiro..."

"God, you're burning up. I'd better get you put to bed until we figure out what's going on." Shiro's right arm pulled him up into his arms, before lifting him up to carry him fireman style.

"Shiro..." The red paladin's stomach suddenly twinged in a manner that wasn't good.

"I'm putting you to bed kiddo." The black paladin shifted him on his shoulder again.

"No..." Keith's stomach twinged slightly as his eyes clamped shut, not liking the thoughts of the situation amusing Lance one bit.

"I'm not taking no for an answer Keith."

"I mean..." Whatever was in Keith's stomach wouldn't stay down, and spurted all over the back of his older brother's paladin uniform due to hanging rather limp over the others shoulder. "Shit."

Shiro simply stood there, his face not visible for Keith to see, and yet the way the older paladin tensed up told him a certain someone was taken off guard. He heard Coran speak up. "I'll clean up."

"No, no. I'll take care of it when I get back." The black paladin's tone of voice caused a sudden tension to arise in the room. "I always do." The older paladin shifted Keith in a more gentle manner, as the red paladin clamped his eyes shut. The next thing he was aware of was a couple of doors sliding open, and then Shiro laying him down gently in his bed, a hand reaching out to touch his forehead. "Good grief."

"I'm fine."

"You just vomited over my entire back otouto."

"You can't play favorites."

Shiro let out a snort, causing Keith to open his eyes to see a rather amused look on the older paladin's face. "Really? Last time I checked you're the only team member whose ill. As the leader, it's my job to take care of you."

A groan escaped the red paladin's lips. "Damn. You're going to enjoy this, aren't you."

Shiro opened his mouth to say something but changed his mind. "I'll be back. Don't leave, else I'll make your life miserable. You know I can."

...

Family had ways of working their way into the most vulnerable of places, exposing the darkest crevices of human nature. Shiro knew this all to well having dealt with the family politics ever since his and Keith's parents died. Said politics meant the eldest was kept to take their father's place as heir to the headship, and the youngest found himself shipped off to a branch family which didn't show they cared in any shape or form.

Family ate away at the soul, particularly the soul of his young otouto. The lips of the adults wagged whenever the head wasn't around, creating all sorts of rumors regarding their parents. The head never said anything in front of Shiro, but once when he was asleep after a summer fever he overheard the old man speaking to his wife. The words _tenshi himi_ were overheard as well as his mother's name, but he soon forgot the words.

Perhaps the memory of said words first came back when he was a prisoner of the Galra, trying to survive on what happy memories he could, or perhaps the thought arose when Lance started blurting out the idea of Keith being an Alien. The memory of his mother being called a _tenshi himi_ came hurtling back. He must have thought about _that_ , and Keith noticed, but he didn't place this as the reason Keith was acting off, at least not until he brought it up.

"Fine. I'm mad because you know something. Lance asking if I'm some kind of alien brought it up." Something in Shiro's mind clicked, about what his grandfather said, and what he suspected. The distance between the two of them seemed to grow, particularly when Keith continued his tirade. "You know something about my real dad."

Shiro's eyes widened, the pain he somehow managed to push back as a child rushing back along with the feelings of being stuck as a Galra prisoner. "She wasn't a slut, or a whore, no matter what the other family members said. She'd been a wonderful mother who loved her husband and her sons."

The red cleared along with the dust rising up from the bent wall Keith crashed into, and Shiro felt his breath draw fast realizing he had harmed his younger brother. Shiro hurried over, touching Keith lightly, the dust covering Keith, obviously having gone up the young man's nose. Still, getting hit with his hand like that had to hurt.

"Keith, I'm so sorry." Shiro's eyes snapped shut, thinking about how much of a monster he was, hurting someone he was supposed to care for. "I didn't mean to. I really didn't. I just..."

"Crap. What happened. Seriously..."

"I'm what happened. I'm going to get you to a cryostasis pod. I think, I just need to stay away from you." Shiro couldn't look Keith in the eye as he lifted him up, carrying the red paladin to the cryostasis pod as he mentally beat himself up. He found he couldn't stay away, and simply stood there, waiting for Keith to get out until Allura and Coran pulled him away.

Lance, of course, tried pushing to find out what happened, but the matter was a family matter and privet, something ingrained into Shiro's mind from when the head drilled into him the way the family worked. On top of this, he still felt numb. Once Keith got out, the need to keep away kicked in, but so did the inability to look his own brother in the eye, likely adding to the problem. He knew though as the leader he would need to step in soon...

... only to find himself sensing something was off, and reaching out to catch Keith as his body crumpled. "I've got you, buddy."

The way Keith's body shook ate away at him, particularly since the cryostasis was supposed to make the red paladin better, not worse. Strangely enough, the sixteen-year-old reached up to scratch at what looked like a strange chicken pox on the back of his neck. Instinctively Shiro stopped him, going into older brother mode way to easily.

This meant checking Keith for a fever, only to find the temperature higher than what he would like. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Lance giving the two of them a rather annoyed look, likely because the blue paladin still misunderstood what went on, and that it was, in reality, Shiro's fault. Thus he had to fix this, both because it was his fault, and because he was the older brother.

Nothing could change that.

He wasn't expecting for Keith to vomit all over him. Shiro left his otouto in bed, knowing full well the teen was too ill to move, but leaving a warning anyways. He proceeded to get a wet cloth for Keith's forehead, and a change of clothes, only for Allura to show up tapping her foot. "I'll take them. You clean up. And Coran already cleaned up."

"No, I..."

"Always do." Allura sighed, patting Shiro on the head before taking the clothes and cold cloth from him. "Just because you're the leader doesn't mean you've got to take care of everything. If I need help with Keith, I'll call Coran. Get yourself cleaned up."

"Keith..."

"I know he can be a pain at times, but I'm sure I can handle him. Plus, as I said, I'll get Coran to help if I need to. It's an order, understand. Get some rest too. You didn't exactly get any sleep with Keith was in the cryostasis, although I'm not sure what happened during that training session of yours. Coran's keeping mum."

"Yes, mam." Shiro let out a sigh, heading to the shower, wondering how he could sneak away from his room to see how Keith was doing. The shower felt good, and he carefully cleaned the armor before crashing into his bed still thinking on how to counter Allura's order, knowing full well she'd be staying with Keith for a bit. He soon found himself lulled into a deep sleep.


	3. Amoris Febrem

"It's not fair."

Coran heard the blue paladin speak, his head jolting up as he scooped the vomit into a container to test it. "What's not fair?"

"The fact Shiro plays favorites when it comes to Keith." Lance leaned back.

The royal adviser tugged his mustache. "Isn't that to be expected?"

Hunk let out a sigh. "Yeah. Keith was like, a genius at the academy, so it makes sense that Shiro would mentor him. I've told Lance..."

"No way that drop out..."

"Say..." Pidge pushed on her glasses, tilting her head. "Why did Keith get kicked out?"

Coran stood up, watching Lance and Hunk look at each other. "Neither one of you know?"

"Disciplinary problems?" The blue paladin shrugged his shoulder. "I mean, he did something to get Shiro majorly pissed at him."

The royal adviser held up a finger to his mouth. "Shush! Allura doesn't know that the training room wasn't damaged during a training session."

"Oh, so now you're playing favorites."

"I think you've got a misunderstanding young paladin." Coran pulled at his beard. "I'm going to go and get this tested to see what bug number four's come down with."

"Oh, I'm going to come with you." Pidge pushed up, excited at the idea of exploring some kind of new technology. "You can identify it quickly?"

"Can't you back on planet Earth?" The man looked down at the youngest paladin, liking her zeal for knowledge. "Well, as long as it's something known."

The two arrived in the room, and Coran placed the material for testing into the appropriate slot, pushed a few buttons and let it whirl while Pidge leaned in close. The machine soon stopped, and Coran began to read the information, leaning close as confusion set in, playing with his mustache as he did so.

Pidge leaned back, her glasses sliding down. "Am I reading this right? This is an Altean virus, right?"

"Well, yes..." Coran continued to play with his mustache, his voice slowing. "It's one that..."

The green paladin began to push buttons, imputing data to the machine, her eyes narrowing. "Coran, this says none of us should be susceptible to this virus, but Keith has it. Has it mutated?"

"No! It's absolutely not mutated!"

"But it's not something which is compatible with human genetics. It couldn't..."

Coran pushed a few buttons, causing the machine to go haywire. "Oh! Look at that! The machine couldn't handle your simulation!"

Pidge opened her mouth, only for Coran to push her out of the room.

…

The door to the room slid open, and no response came from the occupant of the small bed. A soft snore slipped from Keith's head as his chin rested in a slightly tilted position, and a chuckle left Allura's face. A finger reached up to pinch her nose, the smell of vomit reaching her suddenly as she noticed the mess on Keith's clothing.

The princess walked over, one hand reaching down to gently nudge the red paladin's shoulder. "No, ka-chan. I don't want to sleep in my own bed."

Allura blinked, not sure what Keith said just then, and instead let out a sigh as she set the wet cloth down on this forehead, a sigh of relief escaping his lips. She gently reached for his vest tugging it off, only to stop upon seeing the markings on his arm. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she shook Keith again, only to find herself unable to wake him with the gentle shaking.

She sighed, somehow managing to get the vest off one arm as he turned knocking the wet cloth off. Letting out a sigh, she attempted to pull up on the back shirt, hoping to get the clothing with the offending smell away, only to blush at seeing a bit more than she expected. She closed her eyes, brushing aside the girly hormones surging through her head, only to note the pox scattered across the red paladin's body.

Keith startled away at that moment, sitting up, cracking his head against hers. "Allura! What are you doing!"

The red paladin pulled away, the look in his eyes reminding her of the small dog she'd cornered as a child. Her father told her some animals needed to learn to trust, and yet seeing such a look in the eyes of someone with the same cognizance as her felt wrong. "Wait..."

"Get out!"

"Hold on..."

"Where's Shiro. Why are you here and not him?"

"Hold on."

"Get out!" Keith collapsed back onto the bed, panting.

Allura attempted to bring the cloth back onto Keith's forehead, only to find her hand slapped away, the look still in his eyes. Letting out a sigh, she left the room, wondering how she could help the paladin, remembering full how painful the childhood illness was.

"Princess!"

Allura's head darted up to look at her adviser, wondering what had Coran in such a panic.

"Keith has Altean fever."

"I noticed. Is that even possible? I mean, human and Altean genetics are very different, so..." The princess watched the color drain from Coran's face, his fingers twiddling together indicating he knew something. "Coran?"

"Yes Princess."

"What are you hiding from me? This wouldn't happen to be due to a genetic mutation would it?"

"Yes, that absolutely makes sense Princess. It's best that the other paladins stay away from number four for now. We also need to keep an eye on number one to make sure he doesn't become ill as well."

Allura watched Coran carefully, her lips pushing together. "You'll explain this to Shiro?" Her adviser's eyes blinked a couple of times, his head tilting to the side. She shook her head, glancing back at the red paladin's room. "Explain to him that you and I are the ones who need to take care of Keith. You'll help me with that, and explaining it to Keith?"

Coran's eyes widened before pulling at his mustache. "Yes, yes. I can do that. I'll speak to number four, and see to his care. You need not dirty your hands with this business."

Allura watched as the man headed into the room, the door sliding after him. Her eyes narrowed, realizing she'd been delegated to doing nothing, and hurried after the man, frustrated that he would brush her off like that. "Coran!"

A groan came from Keith's bed where the young teen placed a hand over his eyes. "I thought I told you to go away Allura. Instead, why don't you go and get Shiro? He's supposed to be coming back soon. He wouldn't just..." Keith's eyes widened as if he almost said something he shouldn't have. "Sorry. It's nothing. Just leave."

"Now, now young paladin. You don't want Shiro and the others to catch what you have? The princess and I have already had this, so it makes sense that we take care of you, right?"

The red paladin's eyes narrowed, glaring at the adviser as if he were heading into a rather personal territory, but he instead swallowed, turning his head to look at the wall instead. "Whatever."

"Can you sit up on your own, young paladin?" Coran pulled at his whiskers again.

Keith's eyes closed as he attempted to push himself up, only to succeed in getting himself propped up on his elbows. Allura reached out to lift him up with, grabbing the wet cloth which had fallen off to the side as she did so. She placed the item on Keith's forehead, watching as a sigh escaped his lips. The advisor continued to act nervous about something, but Allura brushed it off as Coran simply being Coran.

"I'll go and get some food goo to put on those spots, plus some medicine for the fever and nausea." The man slipped from the room, leaving Allura alone with the red paladin.

She sat down at the foot of the bed, attempting to not make eye contact with the young man. "So..."

"So what?"

"Things were kind of awkward between you and Shiro earlier."

"He had very good reason for getting mad at me the other day Allura."

The princess's blue eyes widened, the shock of what Keith said settling into her throat. "Wait. Coran told me that was a training accident. Shiro's also the leader, so him losing his temper."

Her head turned in time to see Keith open his eyes, his blue eyes dark and his mouth twisted into a deep frown. "You don't know either one of us Allura. I also told you I got what I deserved, so I don't see why this is such a big deal."

Allura leaned back, her shock growing even more. "Such a big deal? When I was talking about an awkward situation between you and Shiro, I wasn't referring to the training incident! I was referring to..." The princess swallowed, her eyes darting away. "... about how intimate he was with you earlier."

"I'm not following." Keith's eyes narrowed.

"The situation was quite intimate between the two of you. It really was." The princess felt a blush spread across her cheeks.

"What! I told him..."

The room filled with silence as if Keith almost said something he shouldn't have. Allura glanced down. "Told him what?"

"It isn't any of your business Allura. I don't see why you're butting into this."

"Because it would be nice if you let someone else be intimate with you, or even for you to be intimate with someone!" The words came out of her mouth, quick and unexpected. A soft hand reached up to cover her mouth, wishing she'd not said what she did in front of Keith. Anger filled his eyes.

"Look, I know that I struggle to get along with the other paladins except for Shiro, but I do try. It's not my fault I don't know a lot of the stuff Lance, Hunk and Pidge are into, or even remotely interested in the things they talk about. I don't exactly have much socialization skills either."

"I..." Relief washed over her, her eyes closing.

"Please, could we just not talk? I'm rather tired."

" _Why does it still hurt, even though I know he didn't find out what that really meant?_ " Allura looked at her hands now resting in her lap, waiting with Keith for Coran to get back.

The royal advisor finally came back, a bowl of food goo in his hands. The man set it down, and reached out for Keith's clothing, carefully pulling the vest off before pulling the shirt over Keith's head. Allura saw the taut muscles on the red paladin's frame and glanced away as a blush spread across her cheeks, hoping Coran of all people hadn't noticed. Keith, of course, seemed as oblivious as her adviser.

Soon the red paladin was settled down to rest, and the two made sure to turn off the light while hauling away the soiled clothing. A blush still spread across her face. A thought crossed her mind, and she turned to Coran. "Since there are no Alteans left besides us, that doesn't leave me many options when it comes to relationships, does it?"

The redhead flinched, his entire body tensing up. "Princess! How could you possibly think something like that? You are like family, and I owe your father..."

"You misunderstand Coran." Allura looked away. "I was actually trying to ask about perhaps starting a relationship with one of the paladins, whether it was actually a good idea or not."

The man's eyes blinked a couple of times before his eyes suddenly narrowed. "It's a transference crush princess."

"What?"

"Don't you remember when you were little, and you had a crush on the previous red paladin? You're just transferring those childhood feelings to the next paladin. That's what it is. Nothing more, nothing less. Well, maybe less, with all things considered."

The young female glared at him, wondering how Coran had figured out who she was thinking up. Her lips pushed together in frustration, but then her facial features relaxed. "I take it that's your advice?"

"Yes princess, that is my advice."


	4. Believing Nobody

Lance rarely ever found himself in a bad mood. Getting to be a paladin of Voltron alongside the legendary Takashi Shirogane felt exhilarating. The leader did, after all, influence the blue paladin to join the Garrison to become a fighter pilot. The coolest situation ever managed to fall into his hands.

Only one person though could ruin the enthusiasm he felt – Keith.

"You're just jealous."

The blue paladin stared at Pidge as if she grew a second head, before turning his head to look away. "This has nothing to do with me being jealous of Keith."

The green paladin pushed up her glasses, smirking at the taller paladin. "Come on. You're always talking about how he's your rival and get mad when he ignores you. You are jealous."

"Jealous?" Lance's nostrils flared, glad neither Keith or Shiro was in the room at the time. "I know full well I'm jealous of Keith. I know full well he's better at me at everything, but I also know Shiro played favorites back at the Garrison. Who wouldn't be jealous of that? Nobody liked Keith because of that, and he always thought he was better than everybody. Still, does. He doesn't think of anybody else but him, going and washing out of the academy like he did despite everything Shiro did for him."

"You're lucky nobody else is here man." Hunk shook his head. "I don't think Keith actually does any of this on purpose."

Lance thought over the conversation many times but came to the conclusion every time that his irritation with Keith had nothing to do with the fact he was jealous, something he had freely admitted in front of those three. The blue paladin also attempted to wrap his head around how the things Keith did were not on purpose. It never felt like the red paladin tried, that because everything came easily to Keith that he felt their social activities were beneath him. Most of all, he didn't like how Keith disrespected Shiro, starting back with washing out at the Garrison.

Most of the time Lance could put this anger aside, but not when he saw Keith disrespecting Shiro in front of him. It all started with another attempt to try and get the red paladin to lighten up, by asking him if he was some sort of alien. The blue paladin freely admitted he shouldn't have pushed Keith's buttons in the first place, but the hurt look Shiro had plastered on his face rubbed Lance the wrong way, and for some reason, the black paladin in his blind favoritism blamed the situation on everyone but Keith.

"Wait..."

Pidge let out a snorting sound. "You do realize you shouldn't have said that to Keith?"

"It was just a joke. How can he not take a joke? What's up with upsetting Shiro like that? I mean, this was between me and Keith, so why should Shiro be needing to smooth things over." Lance looked up at the ceiling, letting out a deep breath as he did so.

Hunk's mouth twisted into a contemplative pout. "So, anyone curious as to why Shiro knows what stuff Keith has or hasn't seen?"

Lance took a deep breath. "All Shiro said was that he didn't think Keith hadn't seen the movie. Big whoop."

Pidge pushed up her glasses, taking on the tone of voice indicating she was lecturing him. "You really weren't listening, were you."

The big whoop for Lance came when he found out Shiro put Keith into one of the cryostasis pods. The blue paladin's first reaction was a complete surprise, as Shiro always in his mind favored Keith, and then he felt delighted the black paladin finally took action against the other teen. However, in the back of Lance mind, something kept nagging him - why Shiro went off on Keith like he had.

"All it was, was a simple joke, so why did Keith lose it with Shiro like he did? I mean, the only way Shiro would have lost it would be because Keith lost it first. Keith was known for losing a temper. Seriously, how lame can one get." Lance felt his mood continue to darken, his lips pushed together.

Of course, Keith reacted negatively. Shiro seemed a bit hesitant to say anything, almost as if he thought Lance was right, but then the blue paladin could very well be misreading the entire situation. When Keith got sick, he felt a bit of satisfaction coursing through his chest but bummed that it ended up being Shiro who took care of Keith. The familiar way the black paladin acted towards the red paladin honestly didn't make sense.

"It's not fair." Lance knew full well he should not have said anything in front of the others, and it felt like they were ganging up on him. That's when he found out Coran had covered things up, making the blue paladin even angrier. Normally he didn't want to take things out on anyone, but the urge to yell at someone kept beating at the back of his head. Keith, of course, seemed like the best person to yell at, due to the situation being the red paladin's fault.

Pidge soon came back from talking to Coran, her mouth pressed into a frown. "Well, apparently we can't catch what Keith has."

One of Lance's eyebrows shot up. "Really? Good riddance. Keith got what he deserved."

"That's not nice Lance."

Lance knew Hunk was the worst person to tick off and looked away. Pidge let out a sigh. "The thing is, Keith shouldn't have caught the bug."

"It's mutated?" Hunk's eyes widen.

"No. That's what's odd. It should only be getting Altean's sick." Pidge continued to worry her bottom lip.

The blue paladin decided to slip away then, hoping to talk some kind of sense into Shiro in regards to , however, found himself hanging outside of Shiro's door, unable to knock on the door. Shiro wasn't in the training room, or kitchen, so that left here, the black lion or the one place Lance didn't want to go, Keith's room. Finally, though he knocked on the door. When no answer came, he opened up the door. "Shiro?"

A muttering sound came from the dark room.

"Can I talk to you?"

A sigh came from the room, and the light switched on. Shiro now sat on the bed, rubbing his eyes as he sat from his sleep. The black paladin's hair was a mess, slightly damp from showering, and a towel was tossed haphazardly to one side. Shiro had bags under his eyes, but also strange colored dots on his skin. "Wat'z't?"

Lance's eyes blinked a couple of times. "Shiro, are you feeling alright?"

"I feel like I got hit by a truck. Otherwise, I'm fine."

Nervously, the blue paladin stepped forward. touching the black paladin's forehead, pulling back at the hot heat. "Shiro, you're burning up!"

"Oh." The black paladin's eyes blinked a couple of times.

"I think you have what Keith has, but that's kind of fast for catching something isn't it?" Lance felt the words stammer out of his mouth.

"Oh. That might explain why I itch all over." Shiro stared at the wall while the blue paladin remained unable to say anything. "Wait. How is Keith..."

"No." Lance's mouth twisted up, noticing how out of things the black paladin was. In his mind, Shiro needed to put his foot down in regards to Keith. "No. I'm not going to go and find out how he's doing. It's his fault you're sick."

Shiro stared at Lance, the older paladin's face drawn so no emotions showed through. "Lance..."

"Don't Lance me. You like playing favorites with Keith..."

The black paladin's breath drew tight. "Does it really seem that way? I thought I wasn't showing him any kind of favoritism."

The blue paladin flinched, the look of hurt in Shiro's eyes hitting him hard. "I..." Lance swallowed. "Look, I'm going to go and get Coran and Allura, so they can take care of you." The young teen slipped out of the room, noticing Shiro's mouth opening to say something. The door slid shut though before Shiro could say anything, allowing Lance a sigh of relief. "Stupid." Lance's hand face palmed his forehead, his lips pushing together tightly. "Shiro's in serious denial, so that wasn't cool."

His long legs pushed him forward, his eyes darting around to see if he couldn't find Allura or Coran. When he found them, the princess seemed to notice he was upset. "What's wrong?"

"Shiro's sick."

Allura's bright blue eyes widened. "He's sick too?"

Coran's eyes darted up. "Oh..."

One finger touched Coran's lip as if he were thinking of something. The princess leaned forward, touching Lance's forehead, causing a blush to spread across his face. "You're a bit warm."

"Well, I'm rather hot for you princess." The blue paladin maneuvered into a position where his hands formed guns.

Coran took a deep breath. "There is other reasons why he might be a bit warm. We'll need to wait a bit."

Lance's eyes narrowed. "Coran, is the machines working?"

"Why do you ask number three?"

"Ask? Pidge says that the virus isn't something we should be able to catch unless it mutated, and it hasn't, so why have..."

"She must be mistaken." Coran began to push Allura away, making on of Lance's eyebrow's shot up.

The blue paladin still felt miffed and turned to the last place he wanted to be. "I _f I can't convince Shiro than I'll chew Keith out for not being sensitive enough._ "

The door opened with a swish, allowing Lance to see Keith lying on the bed. The red paladin's eyes were closed, his breath coming out in a heavy rhythm as his chest rose up and down. The spots dotted his skin, and Lance could also see Keith's skin was sticky with sweat. The blue paladin almost pitied his companion, but instead focused on his anger. "Keith..."

The irritated tone made the red paladin jolt, his breath tightening as his head turned to look at Lance. Keith's mouth opened, but nothing came out, but the other teen's dark blue eyes clearly showed displeasure at Lance being in his room.

"You're a bastard, you know?" The blue paladin folded his arms across his chest.

"I know..." Keith somehow managed to croak that much out, and Lance almost startled at the admittance he received from the other paladin. "Where's Shiro?"

"Do you really think Shiro wants to see you after all of the crap you put him through?" The words came out of the blue paladin's mouth despite the fact Lance knew what he said was cruel. His lips pushed up into a frown.

"I can't blame him." Keith flopped back, his eyes closing as a brief sound of pain escaped his lips. "I deserved that after what I did."

Lance's eyes blinked, surprised that his lie drew out something from Keith, or it might have been the fever. "What did you do?"

"Something really, really bad." The red paladin's voice was a whimper, reminding Lance of his younger siblings when they got in trouble.

"What did you do?" The blue paladin's voice became tenser as Lance wanted Keith to get to the point.

The red paladin's body jolted up, his entire body shaking, Keith's dark blue eyes showing a great did off hurt. "I implied our mother was a whore, alright!"

"What..." The words sunk into Lance's head as Keith's own mind registered the words he'd blurted out.

"I..." Keith swallowed, his head turning away in shame, his cheeks flushing both from the fever and the shame he felt. "Crap. I wasn't supposed to say anything."

Lance felt his breath tighten, his mind thinking back to all of the interactions between Keith and Shiro in the past, picking out signs of familiarity, only to remember there were no such interactions here on the castle. The blue paladin's stomach lurched, trying to think of contradictions in Keith's statement. "That can't be."

Keith's eyes closed, not saying anything, his body to exhausted to say anything.

"If anything, Shiro's not acted like an older brother at all." The blue paladin felt his anger grow, more words tumbling out of his mouth. "There is no way that Shiro would ever treat his younger sibling like crap."

"What?" The red paladin pushed himself up onto his elbows, his entire body shaking from the fever that wracked his body.

"You heard me! There is no way Shiro wouldn't have spent time with you if the two of you were siblings, let alone attack his own brother! Plus, your last names are different!"

Keith stared, then turned over onto his side so that he couldn't look Lance in the eye, his own eyes closing as his entire body continued to shake.

The blue paladin felt his anger grow. "Keith! I just called you a liar! Why aren't you saying anything to defend yourself." A thought flickered through Lance's mind. " _He's not saying anything, because..._ "

Lance swallowed, his eyes looking at the ground. "Why are your last names different?"

His hand reached out to nudge Keith's shoulder, pushing harder when he didn't get an answer. The red paladin finally pushed an answer out of his mouth, his exhaustion all too evident. "Adopted..."

A shudder ran down Lance's spine. "That's not a reason to treat you like this, to abandon you!"

Keith's eyes jolted open, and he turned around, pushing himself up, anger in his dark blue eyes. "Shiro _didn't_ abandon me! Don't you _dare_ say that!"

"Dude, he didn't care that he knocked you into the training room wall, making a pretty major dent when he did that!"

"It was an accident! I deserved it!"

"No, you didn't."

"Yes, I did."

Lance took a deep breath, another shudder running down his spine. His mind ran through some of the things he heard his older sister say from her experience as a psychiatrist, his throat swallowing. Undeniably Keith sounded like someone who was being abused, was in major denial about said abuse, and even depended on the one doing the abusing. The blue paladin's stomach lurched, thinking about how he'd once idolized said abuser. "Keith..."

"I deserved it, Lance! I got what I deserved!

The plummeting feeling simply wouldn't go away as Lance's world continued to shatter. "Keith, has Shiro ever hurt you like this before?"

The red paladin's breath came in pants due to the fever, but also the panic setting in. Lance had never seen Keith this upset. "What..."

"Tell me the truth."

"You're misunderstanding..."

"I'm not! Has Shiro ever physically hurt you before? You know, in a way that's ended with a broken bone or something?"

Keith visibly shuddered. "Yes, but..."

"No. It stops now. I'm going to do something about this." Lance turned to leave, only to stop upon hearing a thump behind him. The blue paladin turned to see Keith on the floor, unable to stand, let alone get back up. "Keith?"

"Don't you dare! I need Shiro! I need him, Lance!"

"No, you don't." Lance could see Keith's eyes dropping as he headed over to the other paladin, lifting the other teen up off the ground. He could see Keith's eyes were shut. He got the other teen settled back into bed with no fight before pulling Keith into a hug, the red paladin's body limp against his own. "I'll take care of you, alright? I'll show you how an older brother is supposed to act."

"No..." Keith's voice trembled.

"I've got both older and younger siblings, so no prob." Lance stood up, letting the red paladin down gently, watching Keith's anger. The other teen couldn't speak, his body giving out with the exhaustion. "I get that you're pissed with me, but this is for your own good."


	5. Bone Tired

Taking a hot shower temporarily relieved the stress, relaxing the muscles and changing away many of the negative memories. Shiro still worried about Keith in the back of his mind, wondering if Allura and Coran really had things handled. The oldest paladin knew full well how particular Keith could be regarding who treated any illness or injury, let alone how. The red paladin only let a few people touch him on a normal basis, making for some very tense situations Shiro sometimes found himself mediating.

Sleep, however, hit hard and fast, his mind drifting off to memories of sleeping under a futon one side of his mother, with Keith on her other side while she read a story to them, or told the two the story. The younger siblings eyes were wide, his facial features clear despite the fact Shiro couldn't make out his mother's features. The amount of time from when their parents passed was a long time, seeming even more distant with the year spent in Galra's prison, but the memories honestly became even shakier as he wanted to forget certain things.

His eyes blinked a couple of times, finding himself alone, with the light filtering in from the crack in the door, the soft voices of his grandparents speaking. Shiro found himself sinking into the dream, remembering how this particular one started up during his year of captivity as the old man said his mother's name, but also _tenshi himi_. Shiro tried focusing on the words, figuring out exactly what his grandfather was trying to say to his grandmother, but he drifted off to another place, his entire body freezing as the fire surrounded him. A young Keith was clutched into his arms. Something else was there.

Before Shiro could discern what the thing was, the sound of the door to his room opening started to pull him from his sleep. He heard Lance's voice calling out his name, then the blue paladin asking to speak with him. The black paladin's mouth felt like he swallowed a mouthful of sand. Shiro pushed himself up, his head feeling fuzzy for some strange reason. He also still itched all over.

"Shiro, are you feeling alright?" Lace's eyes blinked a couple of times.

"I feel like I got hit by a truck. Otherwise, I'm fine." The black paladin felt his eyes blink a couple of times, trying to shake off the heavy feeling coursing through his entire body, but his mind also knew he shouldn't feel this after a shower. His hair also shouldn't be damp anymore.

A cold hand touched his forehead, making Shiro look into Lance's blue eyes. He took a deep breath as the blue paladin announced the fever wracking his body, before proceeding to tell the black paladin he and Keith were both sick. It was then that Lance also made things clear about how he felt. Shiro felt a shiver run down his spine, wondering exactly how much Lance blamed Keith for what happened, or how much favoritism he had been showing his younger brother in favor of the other paladins.

It honestly didn't sit well, but moving from the spot wasn't an option as Coran and Allura soon came to see him. The royal advisor leaned forward, looking him in the eye. "Yup. You likely have what Keith has." The man pulled on his orange mustache. "I'll need to run some tests. I'll also get some medicine, and see that number four takes some as well."

The man left, leaving Shiro sitting in front of Allura, the princesses mouth twisting about, indicating she was thinking about something. She finally spoke, breaking the tension in the room. "So..."

"How's Keith doing?"

"He's rather stubborn." Allura's bright eyes twinkled, and a smile spread across her face despite the fact Keith being sick shouldn't have been amusing. The fact she found the situation amusing bothered him a bit, but before he could pry, Shiro found the princess redirecting the conversation. "Would it be possible to ask you for some advice on something?"

Shiro took a deep breath, wondering where the conversation was going, but also if her amusement had more to do with an excitement regarding whatever she was seeking advice on. The black paladin let out a sigh, leaning back against the alcove, his lips twisting up into a smile. "I don't see why not."

"What would happen if I started developing feelings for one of the other paladins?"

The black paladin's eyes opened up, his mouth falling into a frown. "Wait..."

The zeal and innocence on Allura's face made Shiro wonder how old Allura happened to be. Allura's eyes blinked a couple of times, her mouth forming into a contemplative pout. "Oh, it's not you."

"That's not..." Shiro took a deep breath, closing his eyes. "First off, guys really aren't the best people for giving romance advice."

A sigh escaped Allura's mouth as she sat down next to him on the bed, making the black paladin open up his eyes. She looked up at the ceiling. "I don't think Pidge is the best option for advice on romance either."

The thought of Katie giving romance advice honestly came across as rather disturbing in his fever-addled brain, and Shiro shook his head. "No, I guess not. What about Coran? What about asking him?"

"Coran..." Allura paused, her lips pushing together. "Coran thinks I'm simply transferring a childhood crush onto someone new, and that it will pass."

"I see." Shiro felt a panic rising in his chest, suddenly glad he didn't have to deal with the prospect of Keith dating due to the red paladin's lack of interest in anything except for various modes of transportation, martial arts, and Manga. At least, this was the way things were a year ago. " _No, I really don't see. This is completely weird._ " The black paladin took a deep breath, pretending to brush off what she said. "What do you think?"

"I'm not sure. I mean, this person honestly doesn't compare in any way to that person. They pale in comparison.."

The black paladin's mouth twisted up, thinking over Allura's words carefully. Shiro took a deep breath. "When you say they pale in comparison..."

"They're gawky, immature, but also lacking in skill and charisma in comparison."

Shiro felt a shudder run down his spine, wondering how Allura's current crush would react to her description. The black paladin shook his head, his head heavy with fever. "If so, why do you think you like this person?"

Allura's bright blue eyes widened, a smile fluttering across her face. "I like the challenge. I want to spend more time with them and get to know them better. They're a person I want to get close to, even though I'm not sure I can."

The black paladin's mouth opened, thinking over what the princess said despite his fever-ridden delirium. Words came out of his mouth, across Shiro's dry tongue despite the fact speaking the words may result in problems. "Sounds like you like them for who they are, and not any superficial reasons."

The sudden glint in Allura's eyes worried Shiro, reminding him of her zealous attitude back when the paladin's attempted to form Voltron outside of battle, and the princess turned the castle defenses on. "Thanks."

"Wait..." The black paladin's dark eyes widened as Allura stood up, watching her step out of the room, the door closing behind her with a resounding swish. Shiro's eyes blinked a couple of times. "Why do I think that's not a good thing?"

His head shook, the heavy feeling in his head preventing the black paladin from going after her. Shiro leaned against the back wall while his mind thought of who Allura meant, quickly turning towards Lance. A sigh escaped his lips, wondering how Allura came to be interested in the blue paladin. The young teen's flirtatious behavior was something Shiro felt would turn off any female. There were at times Lance's personality could also be abrasive and cause unwanted friction.

In fact...

The door to Shiro's room slid open, and a rather irate Lance appeared. The teen pointed his finger at him. "I hate you!"

The older paladin's eyes blinked a couple of times, wondering where the sudden dislike for him came from. He leaned further back, letting the wall support his aching body, his mind drifting back to his previous conversation "Lance, does this have anything to do with Allura?"

Lance's blue eyes blinked a couple of times, startling enough for his facial features. "No. This has to do with Keith."

Confusion spread across the black paladin's face. "Keith..."

"You know, your younger brother."

Shiro felt the color drain from his face, worry hitting him deep in the gut. "Lance, what did you do?"

"What did I do? What about what you did? Did you know that I used to idolize you, Shiro? Then I find out you treat your little brother like crap."

The nasty feeling in Shiro's stomach worsened. The idea of treating Keith like crap didn't set well, but the black paladin also didn't understand how Lance managed to find out the red paladin and he were related like they were. "What do you mean?"

"What do I mean? You've ignored him, and..."

"Didn't you just complain about me showing Keith favoritism?" The black paladin's throat itched as he attempted to speak, his voice straining due to the surprise.

"He's your brother. You're supposed to play favorites with him."

"Tell that to Keith." Shiro glanced down, knowing full well his younger brother baulked at the idea of getting special treatment. In some ways, the negative attention Keith got from the rest of the family didn't help, as positive attention was foreign to him.

Lance's mouth twisted up, his hands crossing his chest as he continued to glare at the leader of the paladin's. "Don't you dare blame this on Keith.."

"I'm..."

"Of course, Keith's not going to feel he's worth getting attention from you. That's how anyone in an abusive situation would think."

The black paladin's eyes blinked a couple of times. "Where did..."

"I get the idea from? My older sister's a psychiatrist, so I've overheard her talking about the signs of abuse." Lance stepped forward, poking Shiro in the chest. "The physical abuse stops now."

"What..." Shiro's eyes blinked as the blue paladin backed off. The black paladin's eyes closed, one hand reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "I think there's a misunderstanding."

"No, there isn't. Keith's admitted that this isn't the only time you've hurt him."

"He what!" The black paladin felt his throat tighten. "Keith wouldn't..."

"You're just saying that because you got caught. I'm going to stand between you and Keith. I'm going to make sure he doesn't get hurt again."

Lance turned on his heels, the door swishing closed behind him, leaving Shiro feeling worse than he did. The black paladin's mind tried to think of a single case where he'd hurt Keith outside of the two goofing off, or during their martial arts training, but couldn't think of a single time. His mouth pushed shut, wondering if the misunderstanding was on Lance's part or Keith.

Shiro started to push himself up, knowing he needed to take care of the situation. The door switched open, and Coran appeared. A rather large grin was upon the royal advisor's face as the man pulled at his mustache. "No, number one. You need to take your medicine." A deep sigh escaped Shiro's mouth as he took the cup from Coran and chugged the nasty liquid down. The black paladin glared at the other man, only for his eyes to begin to droop. "You may want to lie down. I'm glad I was able to get you to take the medicine. Number four simply threw it across the room."

"Crap."

"That's not a very nice thing to say number one."

A shudder ran through Shiro's body as he collapsed into the bed, the medicine lulling him into a restful sleep, making it so the black paladin couldn't fix the situation.


	6. Bamboozled Notions

The blue paladin's mind whirled, wondering how Shiro so easily denied treating his younger brother, Keith, like dirt. Lance found himself slinking off to a corner, attempting to calm down from the painful knowledge that his idol, and hero, turned out to be a major fraud. The teen leaned up against the wall, his eye closing tightly, popping his shoulders slightly to relieve some of the tension, one thin hand reaching up to rub the back of his neck.

If he needed to rethink how he thought of Shiro, then he needed to rethink how he thought of Keith.

In some ways, the rethinking process made the blue paladin feel ill. Lance's original train of thought painted Keith as simply a drop-out, a delinquent with an ego in regards to personal ability. The blue paladin's fingers drummed at the wall, his throat swallowing, thinking about each of those issues, his imagination going wild trying to think of explanations.

Why did Keith get kicked out? Iverson always told the other cadets the red paladin got nixed from the program due to a disciplinary issue, and yet no one ever knew any details. Rumors flew around, including the shorter paladin getting into a fight with the wrong person. Lance did remember Keith getting into a few fights, but the other teen also actively avoided people. Plus, fights which got people canned tended to be notable enough for everyone to know about them.

Lance tried picturing Keith as not having a narcissistic personality regarding his own abilities. On one side, the red paladin never bragged about his own abilities, but the shorter male found ways to talk down the blue paladin's own abilities. Lance's jaw pushed together, admitting the fact his abilities lacked in comparison. The taller teen picked up on the fact Keith also hated any reference to the fact he dropped out of the garrison.

Shiro being Keith's older brother though started to put another spin on things. Lance remembered how much everyone bad talked Shiro after the mission failed, and could imagine this being enough to set Keith off, what with his hot temper. The red paladin worshiped his older brother more than the blue paladin ever did. Keith also likely felt like he failed Shiro, explaining the real reason why the red paladin reacted negatively towards any reference to his ultimate failure.

As for Keith's ability…

The blue paladin let his eyes open, his hands twisting into fists as his jaw set. Expectations for Keith, as Shiro's younger brother, had to run high. All of the adults, even Shiro expected the red paladin to excel in the same way Shiro did, if not surpass the black paladin. The times Keith spent with his older brother amounted to a means towards the end, to make the red paladin excel even more. This in turn explained why Keith's non-existent social life.

"So not cool." Lance's fist pounded against the wall. The rather sappy feeling making the blue paladin's throat clench up, but also make his entire body sweat. The blue paladin's eyes blinked a few times, thinking about how uncoolness of the situation between the red and black paladins. A sniffle escaped, making the teen rub his nose. "Crap. Keith's got me all sentimental, and crap, which is so not cool."

The sound of Hunk's voice filtered down the hallway, making the blue paladin jump. His lips pushed together, realizing the chances of the yellow paladin finding him in a rather sorry state were high if he didn't act quickly. "I don't want to get sick Pidge."

"You worry too much."

Lance cursed under his breath, before dodging to the side, hoping to avoid the other two, but the blue paladin found himself unable to maneuver around the corner before Hunk caught sight of his best friend. The yellow paladin called out his name, forcing the thin male to turn to look at the other two paladins. A sigh escaped from Lance's list, his mind attempting to think of a way getting away from the two, so he could go and see how Keith was doing.

Hunk's lip twisted up, noticing the look on his best friend's face. "Hey, are you feeling okay?"

"Am I?" Lance's blue eyes blinked a couple of times, his head shaking as a rather clammy hand reached up to rub the back of his neck. "I'm feeling fine, why?"

"You look like you've seen a ghost, or something."

The warm friendliness of Hunk's eyes made Lance worry his lip even more, his eyes darting away. "Hey, could we possibly talk about this later. I'm wanting to check on Keith to see how he's doing."

Pidge's brown eyes blinked a few times, one finger pushing up her eyeglasses. "You hate Keith."

"Well, now I don't."

The yellow paladin let out a deep sigh, lifting his huge hand up to touch Lance's forehead, his lips pushing together. "You don't have a fever. Are you sure you're not coming down with what Keith has?"

The blue paladin's lips pushed together, his hand reaching up to brush Hunk's hand away. "Come on. If I was going to get sick, I'd think I'd be feeling it by now like Shiro is."

Hunk's eyes widened in horror, his mouth trembling. "Wait. Shiro's sick now too?

Pidge's eyes blinked a couple of times, her thin mouth twisting into a frown. "That's not possible."

"Oh, it's totally possible. I'm going to get sick as well."

Lance opened his mouth, words spilling out without a single care. "Isn't it just Keith and Shiro who are going to get sick, all things considered." The other two paladins stared at him, Pidge's eyes blinking again, her fingers reaching up to adjust her glasses. The looks the two other teens gave him made Lance's stomach lurch, wondering why the two acted as if he'd said something weird. "What?"

"What things?" Pidge folded her arms across her small chest, her mouth twisting into a deep pout.

"What do you mean what things?" The blue paladin's eyelashes blinked a couple of times, tickling Lance's cheeks, making him feel a little better, but not by much.

"You know, you said 'all things considered' in regards to Shiro and Keith getting sick."

"You did Lance." Hunk's mouth formed into a pout.

"Um…" The blue paladin felt his voice strain in his throat. "I was meaning…" A sigh escaped from Lance's mouth, his eyes darting away. "Nothing. It's silly."

"Silly? I'm going to be getting sick, but you insisted that I'm not!" The yellow paladin's voice strained, the biggest teen's emotions threatening to pour out. Hunk followed up with one of his usual whimpers.

"What would I know? I don't get this scientificy stuff like you guys do. I'm going to go and check on Keith"

Lance found himself walking between the two, heading down the corridor to Keith's room. Realization hit him upon hearing Pidge and Hunk start up their conversation again that he avoided telling his best friend about the situation between the red and black paladins. Lance's throat itched, knowing full well Hunk would be hurt, as his big heart would want to fix things between the two brothers. "It's not something you can fix though."

The blue paladin arrived at Keith's room, letting the door slide open. Lance's eyes blinked, the darkness revealing nothing at first, but then the red paladin's thin frame became visible in the shadows. The teen took a deep breath just as a hand reached up for the light. Both young teens blinked a couple of times, and the deep breath escaped Lance's mouth. The blue paladin stepped into the room, noting the look of irritation on Keith's face. "Look, I know you're not one to enjoy being woken up, but…"

"That's not why I'm pissed with you." The red paladin pushed himself up, before breaking out into a coughing fit, doubling over from the exertion. Keith's hands gripped the blanket. "Go away."

"No." Lance plopped down on the flow, crossing his legs and arms, a stubborn pout appearing on his face.

The other teen coughed some more, before turning his head to look at Lance. "Jerk."

"I know you're pissed at me, but as I already told you, it was for your own good. Now just get better. Let me know if you need anything." Lance leaned back against the wall, noting how weak Keith's body seemed. The blue paladin swallowed, noticing how the younger brother for some reason ended up much worse off.

"I need you to shove off." Keith turned over onto his side, hitting the light as he did so, before another coughing fit erupted.

The taller teen stood up, slamming the light on. Lance saw the red paladin squeeze his eyes shut against the bright light, Keith's tongue attempting to lick his dry lips to no avail. "I'll go and get you some water. I'll be back." Getting the fluids took a little time. The red paladin turned the light off again, forcing a huff from the other paladin. "Come on! Stop being like this Keith."

The mullet-haired teen sat up, visible rings under his eyes. "Stop being like this? _You_ accused my brother of abusing me Lance!"

"You told me he hurt you in the past! That's abuse!" The blue paladin felt Keith's pillow hit him in the face, the glass dropping to the ground and breaking. "Hey! I'm seriously trying to help you!"

"No! You're seriously…" Another coughing fit erupted from the red paladin, and Lance moved to sit down on the edge of the bed, the pillow and broken glass forgotten on the floor. The smaller teen doubled over, his head buried in his knees as the coughing fit continued.

"Hey, you're not doing so good." The blue paladin reached out to touch Keith's shoulder, only to find his hand hit away.

A muffled sound of irritation escaped from the red paladin's chest. The teen tilted his head, peeking out at Lance. His dark blue eye revealed a large amount of anger, but so did the way Keith tensed up. "I'd be doing a lot better if you weren't so inclined to stress me out."

Lance felt his mouth twist up, swallowing as he looked at the other teen. "I'm not backing down Keith. I promised you I wouldn't let Shiro hurt you ever again, and…"

The red paladin's head jolted up, the anger Keith felt towards Lance becoming even more evident when the smaller teen lunged at him. The blows lobbed at him felt weak compared to what the blue paladin knew the smaller teen could do, and his hands easily grabbed ahold of Keith's wrists, but also pushed the smaller teen onto his back, holding the red paladin down so that no more blows came Lance's way.

"Seriously?" The blue paladin shook his head in disbelief.

The red paladin panted, struggling to breathe. A few tears welled in Keith's eyes. Whether they came from the struggle to breathe, or because Keith's emotions boiled over. The red paladin attempted to take a deep breath, only for another coughing fit to set in. Keith started to choke, making Lance's face twist in panic. Instinctively he pulled the red paladin up into his arms, wrapping the thin limbs around Keith's small frame.

Lance rubbed the other teens back, remembering what his mother and older siblings did for him when illness hit him as a child. He rested his chin on Keith's back, feeling the tension wracking Keith's body. Add to this the vomiting, and pox-like spots, the blue paladin knew his companion wasn't doing well. A sigh escaped his lips, waiting for the coughing fit to subside.

Keith attempted to push him away. "Don't touch me."

The taller teen refused to let go, holding on as if the others life depended on the touch. "No!"

"Lance!"

"I'm not letting go! Nobody's ever touched you in a positive manner, so I'm going to do it. I'm going to act like a big brother to you. I keep my promises Keith."

The reaction from Keith made the blue paladin flinch, as he didn't expect the other paladin to burst into tears, have a few more coughing fits before falling asleep in his arms. Something Lance said triggered something, but he wouldn't be able to find out until the red paladin woke back up.


	7. Completely Objectionable

Everything…

For Keith, everything which should be seemed to get farther and farther away. Telling Lance about his relationship with Shiro came out unexpectedly, the fever getting the better of him. _Things_ were already bad enough, with the Alteans care practices when someone became ill differing greatly from the way his and Shiro's culture handled things. Worse, however, was the false accusation Lance lobbed at Shiro, making the young paladin feel a great level of stress.

The red paladin itched all over, his lungs itched, his throat dry, and his stomach felt like a bunch of pins were shoved down his throat. In fact, his throat felt likewise. His entire body shook, but also felt weak. Despite this, when Coran attempted to give him some kind of medicine, he managed to hit the item away, Keith's dark eyes closing shut as the royal advisor cleaned up the mess, at the same time lecturing the young paladin about taking his medicine.

The light clicked off after Coran finished, allowing Keith to sleep for a bit, drifting in and out due to the coughing fits which wracked his body.

He jarred completely awake when the door opened, and he hit the light. Lance stood there, back to make his life even more miserable. The blue paladin insisted Shiro abused him,kept breaking into Keith's psyche, pushing the red paladin to finally lunge at Lance, only to find himself pinned on his back, something which would not normally happen if the smaller paladin wasn't as weak from illness.

Keith was utterly, completely humiliated, not to mention extremely uncomfortable with the fact Lance now sat on top of him, looking down at him with those blue eyes of his, as if they were attempting to bore right into his soul. A coughing fit started up, and the blue paladin forced touch upon him, insisting that the touch was actually needed. The blue paladin also managed to say the wrong thing, insisting he would keep his promises.

" _Older brothers are supposed to keep their promises Keith. I've told you that before, so when I say I'm going to come back and take care of you when the mission is done, I'm going to keep that promise, alright?_ "

The red paladin certainly didn't need the reminder of Shiro's broken promise, particularly when Keith knew full well things were out of his older brothers control. Lance's lack of understanding proved baffling, and yet the smaller teen found himself unable to escape from the presence of the blue paladin, the other having forced himself into his world, breaking down the many barriers Keith set up over time to protect him from the emotional backlash.

Lance couldn't honestly begin to understand.

The humiliation grew, the tears coming uncontrolled as Keith's emotions rushed out. The fever prevented him from thinking straight, but also keeping his emotions in check. His tears soaked the front of Lance's clothing, his hands limp at his side, without the strength to push himself away, let alone pulverizing the other paladin for inserting himself in such a personal manner. Regrettably Keith also drifted into sleep, the weakness of his body taking over.

The need to use the restroom woke him up.

Keith found himself leaning up against Lance, the other teen holding onto him, a soft snore indicating the blue paladin also drifted off. Somehow Keith managed to twist around, putting his bare feet on the ground. He managed to push himself up, and left the room, teetering on his feet, moving slowly to the bathroom. The coughing fits were also less, thankfully. The long journey proved agonizing, so relieving himself brought a lot of relief.

He stood at the sink, splashing water on his face to try and relieve the dizziness brought on by the fever, but also the physical weakness. Suddenly his body began to tilt in one direction, Keith's eyes widening upon realizing the control over his body completely disappeared. He hit the ground hard, nobody being there to catch him this time. The air left his lungs, his eyes closing as another coughing fit hit, but also a jarring pain in his stomach.

Instinctively the red paladin's body twisted up into a fetal position. The water continued to run in the sink while Keith's eyes squeezed shut, knowing full well he needed someone to find him. Physically he might be able to lift himself up off the cool ground, but not to stand up. The coolness of the floor also soothed his feverous body, making him relax, possibly drifting off again as the coughing fit subsided.

"Keith?" Lance's voice broke through the mist, and the red paladin felt his fingers move against the floor, his eyes shut as the water turned off. The other teen gently grabbed his arm, lifted him up. His eyes opened up to see the concerned look on the other paladin's face. "If you needed to go to the restroom, you should have told me. You wouldn't have collapsed like this."

"As if." The embarrassment from needing help welled in Keith's chest, his eye on the ground as Lance helped him stagger back to his room. Another coughing fit threatened to overtake him.

"I get that you're mad at me, and thus don't want my help. We're a team though, and supposed to look out for each other. Which is more than I can say for Shiro."

"Don't talk about him like you know him." The red paladin blinked a couple of times, his mouth pushing together in frustration. The false accusations hit hard, and yet Lance seemed to keep at labeling Shiro as an abuser. The coughing fit erupted from Keith's mouth, causing the blue paladin to pull him closer, preventing the smaller teen from collapsing to the ground again.

"Don't talk. I get the fact you're in denial about your brother, but still…" Lance's comment made Keith open his mouth, only for another cough to escape. "Seriously, Keith. You talk, you cough. Let's get Let's get you back to your room. Then we can talk."

The red paladin felt his teeth grind together, in part to prevent himself from coughing again, but also hold back his anger. The door to his room eventually swished open, the two having arrived back at the room faster than it took Keith to get to the restroom in the first place. Lance helped him stagger in, his footsteps unsure as the weakness in his body started to get the better of him. Something sharp, however, pierced his foot, jolting him back. The two fell into Keith's bed, Lance letting out a yelp.

Just to Keith's luck, the blue paladin also managed to land on top of him, making a groan of pain escape his lips. Lance pushed himself up off of his fellow paladin. "Hey, you alright."

"No." Keith choked out. "You landed on me, and my foot."

The smaller attempted to pull his foot up despite the weakness in his body, his mouth pulling tight at the corners. Lance grabbed at his foot, pulling it up into a rather awkward position, the color draining from his face. "Oh quiznack." The blue paladin's blue eyes looked at the mess on still on the floor, the blood now mixed in with the broken glass laying next to the pillow. "This is my fault. I didn't clean it up."

Keith felt his shoulders tense up, the anger boiling over. He felt too weak to pull his foot away, but his fellow paladin now found himself preoccupied with something else. "And yet you accuse Shiro of abusing me?"

Lance looked up, the color still drained from his face. The blue paladin obviously, from the look on his face, took the words as an accusation. "It's not the same Keith."

"Not the same? Yes it is." The smaller teen started coughing, this time for a short period of time.

"No, it isn't."

The red paladin swallowed. "How would you know, when you don't know what happened? You only asked me if Shiro ever asked me, never how and why."

"It's still not the same. No way you would answer yes to my question if Shiro dropped a glass and you stepped on it."

Keith hit Lance with his hands, the blows coming lightly, but his frustration evident. "You…"

"I'm going to go and get a first aid kit. Could you stay put until I can get back to pull this out? Well, of course you will. No way you're stupid enough to walk on this foot of yours." Lance stood up, leaving the red paladin to stew on the floor, crossing his arms in frustration, waiting for the other teen to get back. The blue paladin managed to get what he needed quickly, along with something to clean up the glass. As he swept up the glass before pulling out the shard, the taller teen let out a muttered, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Keith grumbled, irritated that Lance wouldn't listen.

"For not cleaning this up."

"But you're not sorry for not listening to me."

Lance stopped, looking the red paladin in the eye, making Keith look away, eye contact not to the smaller teens liking. The red paladin felt his mouth push together. "I've been listening. How else would I…"

"You jumped to conclusions."

"I did not."

Keith took a deep breath. "Yes, you did."

"How so?"

"Martial arts." The words came out of Keith, a coughing fit preventing him from saying a full sentence, making his mouth twist in frustration.

"Martial…" Lance let out a sigh. "The fact Shiro used martial arts on you doesn't make it better! It makes it worse!"

"No." Keith shook his head. "My aniki _taught_ me martial arts."

"What…" The blue paladin's blue eyes blinked a few times, and then Lance shook his head in frustration. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"Shiro sometimes accidently hurt me while teaching me martial arts. Other times we were goofing off. He's never, ever hurt me intentionally. Ever."

Silence fell over the room, the blue paladin staring at Keith, the red paladin's words sinking in. Lance let out a cough to clear his throat before looking away. A coughing fit from the red paladin brought him back, and he gently lifted Keith's foot this time, carefully removing the shard before bandaging the injury. He then proceeded to help his fellow paladin up onto the bed, before sitting down at the end of the bed. The red paladin found himself dozing off, his energy sapped. In some ways Keith blamed Lance's overabundance of energy for his own lack of energy.

A nudge brought him out, the dark blue eyes of the red paladin opening up to see Lance moved closer. Now the blue paladin sat at his side rather than the foot of the bed, his body uncomfortably close. "Hey…"

"Go away."

"No. I need to apologize." The blue paladin's words made Keith's eyes blinked a couple of times. "For, you know, accusing Shiro of…"

"I'm not forgiving you."

"Come on!" Lance's mouth twisted into a pout.

The red paladin looked away, not pleased with the puppy face the other paladin gave him. "Shiro's _not_ just my brother. He's also my dad, so to speak."

"Not possible. He's not old enough." The tone of voice made quite clear how baffled Lance was.

"He's old enough to take care of me. Only one who ever did. Looking out for me, that's why he's the way he is. Or was. Yet you went and accused him to his face of abusing me. It's not me you've got to apologize to. Plus…" Keith's mouth snapped shut, not wanting to say what went through his head.

Lance reached out to touch him, making him jump. "Plus what?"

"Plus don't touch me!" The red paladin felt a shudder run down his spine as Lance turned his head away, pulling his hand away.

"Plus what?" Lance's voice remained tight.

"I don't like being touched by strangers."

"I'm not…" The blue paladin's lips pulled tight. "Just tell me what's bothering you."

"Shiro was already avoiding me after I got out of cryostasis! You just made it worse you moron!" Keith choked on his words, starting into a coughing fit. Somehow he managed to gasp out the next part after the fit. "I can't lose that. Not again."

Lance patted his shoulder, making Keith flinch. The blue paladin's mouth twisted up into one of his trademark pouts, only to have his hand hit away again. "I got it. I've got to do something to fix things between you and Shiro."

Keith's eyes widened. "Don't! You'll only…"

"I made a promise, didn't I? I told you I keep my promises." Lance stood up, rubbing the back of his neck. "Hang tight. I'm going to go and apologize to Shiro. I really feel like a douche, and am really sorry."

The red paladin's eye twitched, noticing the last words came with a puppy pout just as the blue paladin stood up, slipping from the room. Keith found himself to weak to follow, everything taking a major emotional toll on him.


	8. Complicated Meanderings

Lance idolized Shiro.

Hunk knew how stubborn his childhood friend could be. The yellow paladin knew full well this stubborn streak tended to get his best friend in trouble, and in turn got the big guy in trouble with him. The chubby paladin remembered looking up at the starry sky on humid summer nights from the roof of the family van, or watching sci-fi movies with his best friend when the weather meant stargazing wasn't an option. Sometimes Lance simply wanted to watch a sci-fi movie, particularly to finish off a night of star gazing. The conversation always turned to his childhood hero, and how Lance planned on entering the garrison to follow not in his older brother's footsteps, but that of Shiro.

The reason Hunk went to the garrison was Lance.

The yellow paladin remembered how the blue paladin hoped to meet Shiro face to face through some chance encounter, but oddly enough, another freshman cadet seemed to always catch the garrison idol's attention. Everyone felt jealous of the young man everyone expected to be the next star from their school, and yet Keith washed out soon after the failure of the Kerberos mission. Nobody knew why, except for the brief mentioning here and there from the teachers regarding some kind of discipline problem.

Gossip ran rampant though. Keith got into a fight. Keith played hooky. Keith cheated on his grades, and didn't get any of the good scores he got. Keith got caught with a girl in a very indecent situation. Keith got caught with a teacher. Keith joined a gang. Keith – looking back, Lance wasn't the only one jealous of Keith, but he was honestly the only one who admitted as much, claiming the other teen as his rival, pissed at Keith washing out as the other teen set an unobtainable goal. Sure, the other teen dropping out meant Lance got bumped to fighter pilot class, but on a fluke which stung.

A lot of Lance's anger came not from the fact Shiro played favorites with Keith back at the garrison, particularly since Shiro didn't play favorites here in the castle. In some ways the anger might be blamed on the fact Keith did get Shiro, the blue paladin's idol, pissed off enough to do enough harm for the red paladin to end up in cryostasis, but Hunk knew his friend well enough to know the real reason, but the explanation was complicated to say the least.

Undeniably, Lance hated Keith, and yet the blue paladin still found himself drawn to the red paladin like a moth to the fire. Hunk recognized back then his best friends awkward attempts at making friends with Keith. Not only did the red paladin apparently snub these attempts to make friends, the other students mocked Lance for these attempts. Looking back, Hunk doubted Keith meant to slight Lance, or understood let alone knew how the other students mocked Lance, but that's where the betrayal really began.

Lance didn't hate Keith because the red paladin let down Shiro, but because the red paladin let down Lance.

Not that Lance would admit as much.

Thus Lance did that thing his older sister, the psychiatrist talked about, transference, where he pushed off his disappointment off as another person's feelings.

When the blue paladin's stubborn streak kicked in, there was no stopping him, and in fact Lance figured out things on his own eventually. Sometimes this took awhile, and Hunk found himself worry about what might occur because of Lance's stubbornness – typically, the messes created weren't pretty to say the least. In particular, the yellow paladin knew full well Lance would unintentionally take advantage of Keith's current vulnerable state to chew him out for the supposed slight imposed upon Shiro, but exactly what the blue paladin would say or do, he wasn't sure, nor was he sure about how Keith would react.

Right now though, Hunk honestly found himself more worried about catching whatever Keith had. The yellow paladin struck up a conversation with Pidge concerning his worries, since Hunk currently found his best friend to be missing. "I'm going to get sick. We're all going to get sick."

Pidge stared at the computer screen, her lips pushed together, her head darting up suddenly. "What did you say Hunk?"

"I said we're all going to get sick, and die out in space where nobody knows where we are."

The young female's mouth twisted up, almost in annoyance. "Hunk. We're not going to get sick. It's actually weird that Keith got sick, you know."

"No, I don't know."

Pidge let out a deep sigh. "How many times do I have to tell you, the virus needs to mutate so we humans can catch it, but the machine clearly showed the virus hadn't mutated."

"Maybe the machine's broken. Ever think of that Pidge?"

Another sigh escaped her mouth. "Hunk…"

"I don't want to get sick Pidge."

"You worry too much."

Momentarily Hunk found himself distracted by the sight of his best friend, and the urge to rattle off his worries to Lance surged forth. Hunks worries, however, took a sudden back seat upon seeing the look on his best friends face. The yellow paladin tried placing what was possibly bothering Lance, but the panic about getting sick hit him rather hard. He knew Lance mentioned the fact he planned on checking on Keith despite the fact Hunk knew the blue paladin hated Keith.

"Well, now I don't."

Now that Hunk sat in the room moping by himself, as Pidge kept staring at a simulation she kept running. She, like Lance, kept insisting that Hunk wouldn't get sick. In order to get his mind over his latest panic attack, the yellow paladin started to think about Lance's reaction. His lip pushed together, remembering the look on Lance's face and the tone of voice when he mentioned the fact Shiro had become ill as well. Hunk's eyes wrinkled up. "Hey, Pidge…"

"What…" The green paladin's tone of voice revealed the fact she was annoyed.

"Sorry. I was just wondering if, when Lance mentioned the fact Shiro was sick as well, if you noticed his tone of voice." Hunk looked at her, gulping when he realized she was looking right at him.

"No. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped Hunk. I'm kind of preoccupied with something. What was it about Lance's tone of voice?" Pidge pushed up her eyeglasses.

"He…" The yellow paladin swallowed. "I think he didn't care. He didn't care that Shiro was sick, almost, maybe a bit pleased."

Pidge worried at her bottom lip. "Pleased? Sounded more like he was bored Hunk."

'Yeah, but don't you remember how he said he was going to go and visit Keith, and even said he didn't hate him anymore? Yet it sounded like that disdain he had for Keith shifted to Shiro, or something."

A silence followed this comment as the green paladin continued to worry her lip. She finally let out a sigh. "Sounds like everybody's keeping secrets."

"What do you mean?" Hunk's dark eyes widen, his mouth twisting into a pout.

"Coran…" Pidge looked away, her eyes directed above her closed computer. "He's hiding something. Every single simulation I've run says the virus won't spread to humans unless it mutates, but the tests Coran did showed they hadn't mutated. Lance, he also said something about, you know, Shiro and Keith being the only ones getting sick making sense to him, and yet he's not that bright."

"Are you sure Lance hasn't gotten sick as well, and that the machine wasn't broken?" Hunk's mouth twisted into a pout.

"Well, Coran did say that the machine was broken, but you and I haven't gotten sick yet."

"We've also not been around Keith and Shiro like Lance has been. He's acting weird."

Pidge let out a sigh, standing up with her computer. "So, I'm wanting to look into this more, but…"

"But?"

"I don't know. I don't think it is Coran and Lance who are the only ones keeping secrets from us." The small female pulled her computer under her arm, almost like a security blanket. "Do we really want to dig into this Hunk? We're supposed to work together as a team, yet something definitely isn't right. On one side, this may affect us forming Voltron, but could knowing do the same thing?"

"I don't know." Hunk stood up, a look of determination forming on his face. "I'm going to find Lance. I know something's wrong with him, and I want to help. We're also a team, so shouldn't we be helping our teammates out?"

Pidge stared at Hunk, her eyes blinking a couple of times. "I guess I should go and see how Shiro's doing, since Lance is taking care of Keith." A visible shudder ran down her spine. "That's just, really weird."

"I know." The yellow paladin left, looking for his friend. When he finally found Lance, he found the teen wandering about, his eyes drifting back and forth as if he were looking for something. "Hey!"

The blue paladin turned, his lips pushing together, the look of worry evident on his face. "Hunk, have you seen Keith?"

Hunk's eyes blinked a couple of times, his confusion growing at Lance's reaction. "Are you sure you're okay, and haven't come down with what Shiro and Keith have?"

Two bright blue eyes widened, and Lance's mouth hung open, before taking on a rather strained tone. "I'm not understanding why you think something's wrong with me Hunk."

The yellow paladin swallowed, his eyes darting to the ground. "Well, I don't get why you went from hating Keith, not anymore. Plus, it's rather weird that you're spending time with Keith, and not Shiro. You idolize him."

Lance's mouth pressed together. "Used to. I used to idolize him." Hunk took a deep breath, but before he could push for an answer, the blue paladin quickly interrupted. "Look, I don't want to talk about that. Have you seen Keith? He disappeared from his room."

Hunk felt his lips push together, feeling left out of whatever was going on, and in turn a tad depressed. "He wasn't there when you went to check on him?"

"No…" The blue paladin's eyes widened. "He was there. I dozed off, and I woke up to find him gone. He's not doing good, so I can't figure out why he left the room."

"Um, because you're getting into his personal space?" The yellow paladin wondered how Keith was even putting up with Lance, what with how anti-social the red paladin was, but also how much of a social butterfly the blue paladin was. His best friend gave him a rather bewildered look, before shaking his head. "Maybe he had to go to the bathroom?"

Lance's eyes blinked a couple of times, his facial features relaxing. "Thanks. That makes sense."

The blue paladin turned to leave, but Hunk grabbed his arm. "Lance, what's going on? I know you, so I know something is going on." The yellow paladin watched his best friend turn his head, his bright blue eyes narrowed as if Hunk said something he shouldn't, before looking away. A silence fell between the two, and the bigger paladin swallowed, an ache hitting him in the chest. "Please? Tell me what's going on."

"Umm.." The smaller teen looked away, a silence falling between the two. Eventually Lance spoke up, but didn't look Hunk in the eye. "I'd like to tell you, but I can't just yet."

Hunk let out a sigh, letting Lance's arm go, watching as the blue paladin headed off to the bathroom near Keith's room. "I can help you know."

"I can take care of this myself Hunk."

The yellow paladin's mouth twisted into a frown, a heavy feeling settling in his stomach. All of the other paladins had something to do, or so it seemed. Keith and Shiro were trying to get better. Coran was keeping a secret, and Pidge decided to find out what that secret was. Lance now seemed super focused on Keith, to the point of now ignoring Hunk, and for once the yellow paladin felt jealous.

The young man sulked off to the kitchen, knowing food tended to cure his emotional ails, but instead of eating the food goo, he sat there with his head on the table. Allura came into the room. "You aren't eating Hunk?"

"No."

"I take it something is bothering you?"

"Lance is acting weird." Hunk sat up, looking the princess in the eye, giving her a puppy dog look.

"He wouldn't have come down with what Keith and Shiro have, did he?" Allura sat down, letting her chin rest in her hands.

"I thought that. I mean, he idolizes Shiro and hates Keith, but it's like the feelings got reversed. Lance says he's not sick though, and Pidge says the only way we can catch the virus is if it mutates, but it didn't. Which makes Keith and Shiro getting it really weird, you know." Hunk's mouth formed into a pout, his hands clutching the table.

Allura stared at him, then her tone tighten. "Really?"

"Really? Do you think I would lie to you?" The yellow paladin made a quick motion. "Cross my heart, and hope to die."

"Um, I don't understand, nor do I like that phraseology Hunk, but you should know I don't think you're the type to lie to me." A sigh escaped the princess' lips. "Just, the impression I got from Coran was that the virus did mutate, so you three, Lance, Pidge and you should stay away from Shiro and Keith. Wouldn't the fact Shiro caught the virus indicate it did mutate?"

"It's a bit late for that." Hunk let his chin rest on the table again, wishing there was something more to do. "Lance has been hanging out with Keith, possibly bugging the hell out of him too. He's not gotten sick. I think."

Allura's voice tighten, something upsetting her. "Lance is getting close to Keith?"

Hunk's lip pushed together, lifting his head up from the table. "Um… well, Lance has been there for awhile, even fell asleep in Keith's room. So if he's caught it, he's caught it."

"That's not…" The princess pushed her lips together, her eyes falling to the top of the table.

"What then?" The boy let out a sigh. "You think it's strange as well? I mean, Keith and Lance, they've never gotten along. It's always been me and Lance, so, it's weird that I'm not helping him with this, that I'm being left out."

Her soft eyelashes batted a few times, her mouth opening slowly. "So, you're jealous?"

Hunk took a deep breath. "No! I mean, it would be cruel and very unkind to begrudge Keith the chance to make a friend. I mean…"

"No. I actually possibly get how you feel, in regards to feeling jealous Hunk." Allura glanced away, the look on her face seeming dreaming, sad, if not looking as if she'd lost something very important.

The yellow paladin's eyes blinked. "How could you understand? You're not close to Lance, and I can't see you having any romantic feelings for him… either." Hunk felt a sudden surge of elation, quickly cheering up. "Oh! Oh my!"

The princess stared at him, confusion spreading across her face. "What?"

"You like Keith. As in, like, like him. So you're not jealous of Lance making new friends, but of the fact he's getting close to Keith, and you're not." A grin spread across Hunk's face as a blush managed to appear on Allura's dark skin, her eyes looking down. "You are, aren't you."

"Nonsense. I mean…"

"It's not." Hunk continued to grin at her. "You did want to be the first. You like him, like him."

"Hunk…"

"Let me know if you want some help. I mean…"

"Hunk…"

"Please! I feel useless! If you need something Allura, please let me know. Lance is leaving me out, Pidge is, everybody is."

Allura glanced around the kitchen, neither confirming or denying what Hunk said to her. Her eyes alighted on the food goo. "You know, with both Shiro and Keith sick, perhaps you could fix something similar to what you feed people back on your planet when they get sick? That might help?"

"Oh, sure." A grin spread across Hunk's face, quite pleased at the idea of doing something. He dug into his food with gusto, not noticing the princess as she slipped out of the room, completely avoiding the chance to give an answer to his inquiry.


	9. Cinching Obliqueness

A soft smile appeared within the dreams created by the deep sleep, reminding the black paladin of a time when a certain someone always smiled, their eyes filled with adoration and absolute admiration. The adoration and absolute admiration remained, but over time the person smiled less and less, time and life proving rather cruel. Now, along with that adoration and absolute admiration came a deluge of worry, the absolute admiration possibly no longer retaining the absolute nature.

Here though, the person smiled up at him, their real self shining through, something Shiro wished to see once again in the now. Still, the soft laughter floating through his sleep relaxed him, the nature of the dreams a far cry from the vicious nightmares which normally plagued his sleep, yet regardless, both ended up unremembered in the morning. For some reason the black paladin wished to remain there, in the calm dream, not having to wake up, but something at the back of his mind told him the need to wake up existed.

A breeze blew through the meadow, the grass kicking up around Shiro's legs, his young self-enjoying whatever game he and his younger brother played. Everything felt so real, as if happening then and now. Keith, or Akira as his younger brother was known back then, was happy, and safe. In some ways this dream helped him to keep going whenever he dreamed this dream back as a prisoner, as he remembered his younger brother was safe back on Earth. The dream however shifted to sleeping in his grandfather's house.

A fever raged his small body, but he could hear yet again the words _tenshi himi_ associated with his mother, but instead of the dream flickering to the fire, he found himself in the prison cell, hearing the word mongrol. Shiro found himself jolting awake, a presence in his room making him look around, his entire chest feeling with panic. The dream hit him in the same manner, and yet he struggled to remember the details. He sat up, his eyes drifting over to see the blue paladin, one hand reaching up to scratch lightly at his skin, before stopping, remembering the conversation between him and the blue paladin later on. The young teen sat there, his mouth pressed into a frown, his arms crossed, almost as if waiting for Shiro to wake up.

A groan escaped Shiro's, his eyes snapping closed. "Lance…"

"Yeah…"

"I know that…" Shiro took a deep breath, his hands clutching the sheets so his knuckles turned white. The older paladin found himself unable to look Lance in the eye, the sickening feeling that the blue paladin was right, that he had purposefully hurt Keith in the past. The very thought sickened him, and the color drained from his face, a panic attack setting in. The one thing keeping him going as a prisoner of the Galra was knowing Keith was safe, but now that was taken away.

"Shiro…" Lance's voice strained as the black paladin's entire body trembled, in part due to the fever wracking his body.

The young man began to mutter under his breath, his eyes dilating. "I know you hate me Lance, because of that. I can't remember, yet hate myself for…"

A pillow hit him on the top of his head lightly, drawing Shiro back to reality thankfully rather than causing an episode. His dark eyes drifted over to Lance, who know stood, his lip trembling. "I'm sorry."

"For hitting me with the pillow?" The black paladin's dark eyes blinked a couple of times. A sigh escaped his lips, his hand reaching up to rub the back of his head as Shiro's lips pushed together, his eyes narrowing. "I'm sorry you had to see me like this. Better maybe you than Keith."

"Quiznack Shiro. I'm not sorry for hitting you with the pillow. Well, I am. That was pretty stupid." Lance put the pillow back on the bed behind the black paladin, before leaning up against the wall, his arms crossed. Shiro stared, his mind a vague fog, trying to think about what the blue paladin hinted at, his mind buzzing from the frustration at his own self. Lance looked him in the eye, something Keith struggled to do. "I'm sorry I misunderstood what Keith told me, and I'm sorry I falsely accused you of abusing him, particularly when I know that's out of character for you."

Relief washed over Shiro, a sob choking at his throat. The black paladin flopped back, covering his eyes with his arm, a few sobs escaping his chest as the hot tears poured out. The emotional breakdown didn't last long, but the emotional relief made his entire body relax, and his mind stopped going off into the dark thoughts.

"Shiro…"

The sound of concern in Lance's voice broke the black paladin out of his dark thoughts, allowing him to push himself up and look the teen in the eye, a smile spreading across his face. "I'm okay Lance. Really. I mean, besides the fact I caught this bug. Can you…" The smile faded from his face, remembering how Keith threw up all over him, not to mention seemed not doing as well in comparison. "Can you tell me how Akira's doing?"

Lance's eyes widened, his eyes flickering with confusion. "Akira who?"

"Quiznack…" Shiro's eyes darted to the ground, his hands clutching the edge of the bed. "Sorry. Don't ever refer to Keith as that. I shouldn't of. Haven't since…" The black paladin's eyes closed. "Since Keith entered the academy."

The blue paladin remained silent, staring at his idol. After a few minutes he spoke up, his voice strained. "I know you say you're okay, but you're not. I mean, you _cried_ in front of me."

Shiro's eyes snapped open, his mouth opening slightly in surprise. "Oh. Well, I was rather relieved. I'd thought I'd done something to Keith in the past. I'd never be able to forgive myself, honestly."

Lance continued to stare, observing him carefully, his mouth twisting into a frown. "Yeah. About that. That's what I mean by you not being okay. What else are you beating yourself up over?"

The words sunk in deep, making a frown spread across Shiro's face. "How's Keith doing?"

The blue paladin stared, his arms folded across his chest, his lips pushing together as he thought over the black paladin's reaction. "I saw how you reacted."

"When I woke up?" Shiro drew his breath in, not liking where Lance proceeded to take the conversation. Avoiding the questions, however, would lead to more problems.

"Um, no, although that's also a bit concerning. I'm talking about the way you reacted when you told me you've not called him Akira since he entered the garrison." Lance continued to look him in the eye, so the blue paladin very likely saw Shiro draw in his breath, his eyes darting to the ground.

"I didn't realize I reacted."

"You don't like calling him Keith, do you?"

"It's complicated Lance." Shiro's eyes darted to the ground. "It's about what Keith wants, not what I want."

A snorting sound escaped from Lance's nostrils. "Quiznack. He dotes on you a hundred times more than I ever did Shiro. If he knew it upsets you…"

"It's not that Lance!" The black paladin flinched when he finished speaking, realizing suddenly the rise in volume level for his voice. He cleared his throat. "Sorry. As I said Lance, it's complicated. In case you haven't noticed, neither one of us go by the names our parents gave us."

"You've not called him Akira since he entered the academy."

"No." Shiro let out a sigh. "It's my fault you misunderstand. I only call him that when it is just the two of us, and we're having a serious conversation. I'm not bothered by that. I mean, we called each other Keith and Shiro for a very long time."

The blue paladin frowned, shaking his head. "No. I saw that hurt look on your face Shiro. It does bother you. Plus, I prefer the name Akira."

Shiro let out a deep sigh. "Keith doesn't. I guess what hurts me isn't the fact I don't call him anything but Keith anymore, but more of with the fact I know _why_ Keith doesn't want anyone to know what his real name is. There's a lot of hurt there. As I said. Complicated."

Lance's mouth twisted, his eyes darting around the room before speaking. "Okay. No calling him Akira, even though it's a whole lot cooler name." A silence fell between the two, as the blue paladin continued to look at the black paladin. "So…"

Where the conversation needed to go now, neither knew. Shiro, however, knew one thing remained at the back of his head. "How's Keith? You avoided telling me."

"Um…" The blue paladin's facial features twisted up. "He's upset that you're avoiding him, and thinks I made things worse."

Shiro's eyes dilated, before darting over to the wall. His mind drifted to when he sent his younger brother flying into the wall. The black paladin remained silent, not wanting to talk about the incident.

"Shiro…"

"It's not your fault Lance, nor did you make things worse." The black paladin let out a sigh. "Well, I guess you might have caused a problem if you'd gotten Keith believing I'd actually physically abused him in the past, as that would mean he'd be avoiding me, but then…" Shiro felt his shoulders tense up. "That might actually not be a bad thing, considering what happened a few days ago."

What Shiro wanted to avoid conversation wise now became a part of the conversation. Lance of course let his words. When he finally spoke, the blue paladin's words came out in a jumble. "So, you've kind of been avoiding Keith ever since you got back to Earth. I guess you could say it was more so since that incident in the training center, but really, avoiding him?"

"Keith doesn't want me to play favorites, and I wasn't avoiding him before the incident. After, yes, but not before."

"Bull. Keith does want some big brother time. How can he not? I mean, I miss having my big brother time! He can be a jerk, you know, and tells me I'm obnoxious and all, and I pretend I don't care, 'cause, you know, it makes it hurt a lot less that he thinks I'm an annoying bug, but I still want to spend time with him. You get what I'm saying."

Shiro looked Lance in the eye, watching the teen sit down on the end of his bed, the frustration clearly there on his face. "Are you sure you're not transferring your feelings onto Keith? I'm not sure if you quite understand…"

"He's your brother. I can't for the life of me believe that Keith doesn't want to spend time with you, and it's _very_ much obvious you want to spend time with him. I've noticed, but for some reason you two are being major idiots about this. So why to avoid him?"

The black paladin took a deep breath. "Why? You know well what happened the other day. I _can't_ let that happen again. I _don't_ want to be another person to hurt him, not after everything that's happened."

Lance glared at him. "Okay. So I don't understand you. I think you're plain nutters." The word 'nutters' made Shiro visibly flinch. "Yeah, you're nutters for avoiding him over something like that, particularly when…" The blue paladin paused, as if something came to his mind. "Actually, why did you attack Keith. That's not like you. I mean…"

The older paladin swallowed, not pleased with the fact Lance was starting to pick up on the issue.

"Shiro, the color just drained from your face. What's wrong?"

A deep breath escaped Shiro's lips. "Could this conversation not leave the room?"

Lance's eyes blinked a couple of times, his head sinking, before getting up to leave. "Sorry. My sis tells me I've got a habit of prying into things too much, so I'll…"

The black paladin gently grabbed the blue paladin' arm. "No. I'm saying not to say anything to anyone else about what I'm going to tell you. Even Keith, despite the fact he already knows."

The teen sat down, his facial features twisting into confusion. Shiro twisted around so he could face the teen, and listen to what he had to say. "Why? If it's something private that you're not telling everyone else, why me?"

"Because I think you're already starting to figure it out, and I think it's going to bother you until you know. The reason I've not said anything is because I don't want the others to worry, particularly since Keith already is. I'm trusting you to take care of him, if things should get worse. I also can't talk to him about this, but maybe you can. I trust you with this."

"Worse?" Lance let out a half-hearted laugh. "Shiro, what's wrong."

"I don't know how to put this, but have you heard of what sometimes happens when someone in the military returns from active service in a military zone?" The black paladin took a deep breath, hoping the younger paladin would get the implications.

"Quiznack. PTSD?"

"Yeah. And I hurt Keith because of it."

"That doesn't mean you should stay away from him." Lance looked at the ground. "You also lied to me about being okay Shiro, because now I know you're obviously not."

"Sorry." The black paladin felt ashamed, having admitted out loud the PTSD issue, although the still didn't verbally say his issue. "How is Keith doing?"

The blue paladin audibly swallowed. "Keith's not doing to good. He's a whole lot sicker than…"

Shiro started to move from the bed, only to find himself tackled by Lance, who pinned him down. The older paladin could move the younger off, but he also didn't want to hurt the blue paladin. "Lance…"

"Nope. You said…"

The door slid open, making both paladin's turn their head towards the door to see Pidge standing there. "Shiro…" Whatever the green paladin wished to say went out the window, her cheeks blushing up as she looked at the two males. Her vocal cords tightened, making her voice squeak. "Sorry! I'm so sorry!"

The two stared at the closing door. Lance continued to stare, while Shiro lets out a groan. "What just happened."

"I think Pidge misunderstood." One hand reached up to cover his eyes, feeling the fever wrack through his body. "I don't need this now, particularly since I've got to see to Keith.

"No."

Shiro uncovered his eyes, seeing the look of determination in Lance's eyes. "What do you _mean_ , no?"

"No, as in you're not going to go and see Keith." The blue paladin seemed to miss the irritation that the black paladin felt. In fact, Shiro thought the feelings were evident. "You're job is to get better first. You said you trusted me to take care of Keith, so I'm going to do that. I already promised him that I was going to do that, so now I'm going to promise you. I can't guarantee I won't mess up on the way, but I keep my promises Shiro."

Lance pushed himself up, leaving the room while Shiro stared at the ceiling, his mind utterly confused as to what just transpired.


	10. Dinted Masculinity

How to approach Keith, Allura honestly did not know.

Coran's insistence that she transferred her crush stuck with her, even after her discussion with Shiro. The princess honestly found herself admitting she didn't understand her feelings towards the young paladin, but knew they differed from the way she felt about the previous red paladin.

She still remembered the first time she saw the previous red paladin, having snuck out of the garden where Coran tutored her to find the young Altean sparring with her father, remembering how the young man went head to head with her father to the point King Altor drew a sweat, and yet the young man still found himself knocked onto his back, his facial features startling upon seeing her staring down at him.

The previous red paladin was handsome, the one all of the girls talked the most about. His pointed ears were perfect, his muscles fine tuned, and his eyes drew the girls in. She noticed this more when she started interacting with other Alteans, finally having progressed away from tutors, to learning about the social system. Personality wise, the young Altean was hot-headed, yet his instincts were considered the best since the lions were created.

She also remembered the jealousy she felt towards the blue paladin, due to seeing the two together one time in the garden, when she climbed a tree, thinking the two were a couple. She saw the two were close to each other, so her assumptions were founded on something. She felt this way despite her admiration for the blue paladin, the first female in her life other than her mother, stepping in to mentor her when the blue paladin realized she needed a female figure.

The blue paladin also suggested to King Altor that Allura should interact with other girls her age, thus starting her schooling with the other girls. She remembered how she struggled to speak with the other girls, as the others kept their difference from the royal celebrity, including the noble, except for a few who thought she might help their political standing, only to find out this wouldn't be the case. She found herself finally able to talk to the other girls when her crush on the red paladin came up, and in some ways she wished there were other Altean females to talk to regarding Keith.

She crushed on the red paladin like the other girls, despite the definite age gap between the girls and the young paladin. She also thought the other girls were jealous of the blue paladin as well, though she found herself to polite to bring it up. However, she found herself learning otherwise when she came down with Altean Fever, the blue paladin coming to her rescue and caring for her, keeping her company in her room.

While Altean Fever wasn't a death threat for a young Altean, it wasn't pleasant either, and took a toll energy wise. She found herself not able to go to school, and spend time with her new friends, staring up at the ceiling. A knock came at the door, and the blue paladin let herself in, a sweet smile on her face. " _How are you doing Princess Allura?_ " No comment came, the princesses mouth pushed together. " _No response? I brought you some of your favorites, and none of that nutritious stuff Lord Coran makes for you._ "

The woman stepped over, sitting on the edge of the bed. Allura sat up, taking the tray of food, muttering under her breath. " _How come the cryostasis pods can't cure Altean Feaver. They heal injuries._ "

" _Oh?_ " A laugh escaped the woman's mouth, Allura taking in how pretty the older Altean was, a bit of jealousy setting in. " _Altean children need to build up their immune systems, as this makes them strong individuals. On the positive side, you're not an Altean with the genetics which makes the Altean Fever worse, or that your where it's nice and warm, so the cold weather doesn't aggravate this. It's thankfully quite rare._ "

Allura's eyes blinked, forgetting about her food, her curiosity getting the better of her. She leaned forward. " _How come you know about this, when it is so rare? If the cold weather effects Altean Fever, then doesn't this mean that the real reason a person doesn't go into cryostasis is because it will actually have a negative effect?_ "

The woman's beautiful eyes blinked a couple of times. " _No. Cryostasis isn't the same as exposing one to a harsh environment. You could say being out in the desert with no water would aggravate this as well, as you're not properly resting. It's got to be severe weather though, which lowers the immune system. You could say the genetic issue is an immune issue, some kind of genetics which affects the immune system."_

The princess frowned. " _How do you know though? Do you know someone with this genetic effect?"_

" _Yeah, I do._ " The woman smiled. " _Me._ "

" _You got really sick when you had Altean Fever?_ "

" _Yeah, but I had my older brother to take care of me despite the fact our parents could have._ " The female smiled. " _He may be rough around the edges, I know, but deep down he's a very kind person._ "

Allura blinked a couple of times. "Who is your older brother?"

The woman's eyes blinked. " _I thought you knew. My older brother, my twin to be exact, is the red paladin. People think we're complete opposites of each other, but I've got a temper as well, and he's also very kind._ "

The young princess hoped her blush at that point came across as part of her fever, finding herself embarrassed by the revelation. The blue paladin explained to her those with the genetic issue were rare, but that this also tended to run in families. Even though her brother didn't have the genetic issue, he could still pass this on to her children, but she was far more likely. Allura also learned from her mentor how bad Altean Fever could get, but also the care her brother went into, lasting a good chunk of time.

" _You have a crush on him,_ " the blue paladin said, after telling Allura the details, a soft smile spreading across her face.

Allura buried her face into the covers, embarrassed that her mentor found out her secret.

" _Don't tell him!_ " The princess' voice sounded like a mouse.

" _I don't know. I love embarrassing my brother, and him finding out that our dear little princess is crushing on him would make him squirm._ " The female Altean reached out, ticking Allura so that the covers dropped, and giggles rang the time, Allura was very young at the time, probably equivalent to what Pidge would equate to the human's five to an eight-year-old child, something the two discussed briefly. She also idolized the paladins, the war quickly taking away the chances to go to school, making her loose contact with the girls she wanted to make friends with. She also lost the two people she idolized the most.

The past was painful, and she wanted to move forward.

Keith seemed like the way to move forward, and yet Allura found herself struggling with her feeling, but also the first step in how to move forward.

Hunk also somehow picked up on her feelings, catching her off guard, though this made sense given his personality.

After fleeing the kitchen, for that was what she did, she headed to Keith's room to check on how the red paladin was doing. The door to the room slid open, allowing Allura to see the light of the room was on despite the fact Keith should be resting. The young paladin lay on his side, his entire body trembling slightly. The red paladin squeezed his eyes closed, attempting to sleep as his breath came in a labored manner.

Her eye drifted down Keith's slim body, a slight blush flitting to her cheeks, before settling on his now bandaged foot. A sigh escaped Allura's lips, and she stepped over to the bed, leaning over to nudge the red paladin. The teen jumped slightly, his head darting up, showing his eyes dulled from fever. "Allura?"

"Hey, what…" Her attempt to ask about his foot, only for a coughing fit to rack the red paladin's body. Instinctively she lifted him up, holding him close so that his forehead rested against her felt her breath catch in her chest, as the coughing continued to rack his body. When it finally stopped, she spoke again."Are you okay?"

Somehow Keith managed to pull himself away, propping himself up against the wall, frowning at her as his body continued to tremble. "Allura, why are you here?"

The princess' bright blue eyes blinked, her mouth opening. "I came to check on how you're doing."

The red paladin stared at her, reminding her of the day she ran the paladin's through a bunch of bonding activities, and the five ended up taking a break. Keith gave her a similar look as he sucked away at his drink, glaring at her like she was some kind of fly on the wall. Like that time, he didn't say anything. Instead, a few minutes later a coughing fit, one that didn't last as long hit him.

Allura reached out, only for Keith to reach up, stopping her hand from touching him. "Don't touch me."

The words stung, digging in deep in a manner she honestly didn't like. She remembered talking to him about how he didn't let anyone but Shiro get close to him, an admittance of her own jealousy, only for the words to go right over the red paladin's head. His pale cheeks were also tinged with a red color, but she associated this with the fever racing through his body. She took a deep breath, the look in her eyes reminding her of a wild animal she ran into as a child, only to be rescued by the red and blue paladins.

Her bright blue eyes drifted to his foot, noting the bandaging, but also the slight stain of blood. "What happened to your foot."

When she looked back up, she found Keith's facial features to soften. His eyes widened, the word, or name pouring out of his mouth with ease. "Lance."

Allura's eyes widened. "Lance did this?"

"Ah…" The red paladin quickly became flustered. "That was actually in his attempt to help."

"You do realize I'm just trying to help as well?" Her eyes darted to her lap, seeing even more the injured foot. She remembered the jealousy she felt when she heard Lance was helping, realizing she felt slightly relieved when she found Lance to not be there, but even a bit hopeful when she found out Lance caused the injury. This, however, faded quickly back to jealously. She hoped Keith would say something positive in return.

"When you touch me…" The red paladin's voice strained, in part because of his labored breathing "I don't like how I feel."

The princess felt her heart break, the way he spoke reminding her of when the previous red paladin found out about her crush. The older Altean poked her in the forehead. " _Aren't you a silly bird, princess. I'm way too old for you._ "

" _No you're not!_ " She'd protested.

" _I'm not?_ " The male chuckled, towering above her. The young man looked rather uncomfortable with the conversation they were having. " _I'm old enough to be your father._ "

" _No you're not! You're really close to me in age!_ "

The man's beautiful eyes blinked a few times, rather taken back by her statement. " _I am? I don't think I am a princess._ "

" _But you're only three my age now! When I'm old enough to marry, it will be less than double!_ "Allura stared at her fingers, subtracting and adding, and doing the math, only failing. Had the math been in human comparison, Allura knew that she likely would have been correct.

" _Princess…_ " The red paladin knelt in front of her. A blush spread across her face, Allura finding herself completely charmed by the fact her knight in shining armor know knelt down in front of her. " _You really don't understand, do you._ " The words certainly stung. " _One day, little princess, you'll meet your real knight in shining armor._ " The pout on her face made him ruffle the top of her head. " _Come now! You'll really know for sure._ "

If this was knowing for sure, it hurt.

"Allura…" Keith let out another coughing fit as he said her name. Her head darted up, wanting to reach out to him, but stopped short remembering his rather curt reaction. When he finally stopped, he looked at his lap, his hands clenching the front of his pants. "I upset you, with what I said?"

Allura took a deep breath, before looking away. "It's not your fault you dislike being touched by me."

"I…" The red paladin's voice tightened, cracking as the deep breath struggled to come out. "I didn't say that."

"You did."

"I said I didn't like the way I feel, not that…"

"That's the same thing!"

"It is not!"

"It is!" The argument would have continued, but another coughing fit hit Keith then, making it so his eyes shut, his hands clenching together.

What he said surprised her, catching her off guard, a blush likely spreading across her cheeks. The red paladin didn't look her in the eye when he said it, a hand reaching up to scratch the itchy spots only to fall limply to the side. "Just, try to warn me before you try touching me."

Allura's eyes blinked a couple of times, a smile flickering across her face, only to remember that Keith said he didn't like her touching him. She let out a sigh, wondering where the conversation would now go, only to realize that Keith's breathing became, not so much more labored, but a steady rhythm despite the labored nature. Looking up, she could see he'd fallen asleep. The princess slid back, so her back was on the other side of the wall, watching the young paladin sleep blissfully, almost as if he weren't really sick.

She honestly got mixed feelings off Keith. He seemed to say one thing, but the emotions he exuded another. After only a few minutes however, his eyes flickered open, confusion spreading across his face. "You're still here."

"You're not exactly in a condition for me to leave you by yourself a paladin." Guilt replaced confusion. She watched as Keith leaned forward, going into a prostrate bow as she watched., her eyes blinking a couple of times. "Keith…"

"I'm sorry."

The female took a deep breath, watching his entire body shake as he continued to bow to her. "I thought I told you that you're not at fault for hoe you feel."

"Not that. My getting sick like this is detrimental to the team. We can't form Voltron."

"Keith…" Allura felt her mouth twitch, realizing suddenly that she'd not thought of that at all., and instead found herself far more concerned with her infatuation with the young Paladin. She took a deep breath, wanting to reach out to touch the red paladin's shoulder, to comfort him, but found herself holding back. "What you need to worry about is getting better."

The red paladin made to say something, even though Allura couldn't see him speak, only to fall into another coughing fit. She watched as he attempted to right himself, only to collapse forward, her hands reaching out to grab his shoulders. She felt Keith tense up, her own body tensing at his reaction to her touch. When he finally stopped coughing, she didn't know what to do. Keith's body shook too much to lift himself up, and finally he collapsed from exhaustion.

She found herself pulling Keith slightly towards her as he did, letting his head rest in her lap. She didn't remember a single time when the previous paladin seemed so weak in front of her, and one hand reached out to stroke the teen's head, his breathing indicating he'd fallen asleep again, but still struggled to breathe. His body however relaxed for the short period of time he dozed off, as if he forgot while he slept that she was there.

Allura knew when he woke up, as the red paladin's body tensed back up. Keith spoke in a soft voice, half asleep. "This isn't good."

The princess felt her eyes blink, wondering what he meant by that. "You're not filling well."

The red paladin managed to push himself up, unintentionally moving his full body closer to her. "I'm fine Allura, so you can leave."

Keith refused to look her in the eye, so he didn't see the look of worry plastered across her face. Allura's feelings did however come across in her tone. "You're _not_ fine."

Keith turned, this time so his back was against the wall so his legs stuck out, trying to find a comfortable position. "I'm simply in the same boat as Shiro, so don't give me any special treatment."

"You're not in the same boat. You're worse off, and seem to be getting worse, while he remains steady." Allura felt her chest strain, and watched as the red paladin turned to look at her. This time around Keith sat close her her, and she felt her lips push together, the temptation to kiss him flickering across her mind ever so briefly. She pushed the feelings aside, playing them off as childish.

He finally looked away, coming to the conclusion he didn't know what to say. Another coughing fit hit him, causing him to double over. Allura instinctively reached out, pulling him into her arms, so his head now rested against her chest. He attempted to speak through his coughs, an evident embarrassment showing through. "Allura!"

"Don't." Allura held him tightly. "I _can't_ leave you alone Keith. That's how serious this has gotten." She could feel his entire body shake. "As much as I need to let Coran know your condition has worsened, I also can't leave you alone." She could feel Keith drift off again, his body relaxing. He didn't even wake when the door slid open, and another paladin's voice rang out.

"Keith, I got you some of Hunk's…" Lance stared, the sentence finishing. "… soup." A silence fell between the two until he decided to clear his throat. "Um, Allura…"

"He's asleep."

"That's beside the point. You're not supposed to come into his room like this, by yourself."

"You did."

Lance cleared his throat again. "Allura, you're a girl. While I'd personally _love_ to be in Keith's shoes, I can't imagine he's comfortable with this."

"I simply came to check on him. He's gotten worse." Allura watched the blue paladin visibly tense up.

"Still…"

"It's at the point we can't leave him alone. I was waiting for someone else to get here, so I can go and get Coran."

"How bad is it?" Lance looked at the ground, before shifting nervously.

"Considering the fact Coran's not yet gotten green food goo on either Shiro or Keith at this point, and has only given them medicine, I'd say pretty bad. He knows more about this though, as he's older."

The blue paladin set the tray of food on the floor beside the bed, before slipping in between Keith and the tray of food. He reached out gently, pulling Keith from him. "Come on, you need to wake up Keith."

The teen woke up, his eyes blinking a few time, before drawing a deep breath upon realizing who he now sat between. A coughing fit hit before he could protest, both companions holding him up. He then found himself pulled completely into Lance's arm, and Allura got up to leave. She'd slipped through the door, when the blue paladin came after her. She turned, not at all pleased. "You need to stay with Keith. He can't be left alone."

"I know, but just a few ticks as I've got a request." The teen held up his hands defensively. "Could you send Hunk by? It's rather important? Before you talk to Coran maybe?"

"I'll see."


	11. Stirring Feelings

Lance never expected his image of his hero to be shattered into a million pieces.

In his mind, Shiro was perfect and could do no wrong, while Keith always managed to mess things up. This image remained until Lance thought his hero was an abusive older brother, which in turn led him to pity the red paladin. Slowly, Lance found himself picking those pieces up, trying to work them back into the image of perfection he had in his mind, and yet he tried balancing this image of perfection with Keith's own image of perfection. Except…

His hero had PTSD.

In truth, after everything he did, Lance was surprised that Shiro even admitted as much to him, but it didn't take him long to come to the conclusion the black paladin honestly worried how his condition would affect his younger brother. He never thought his hero would not look like a hero anymore, with weaknesses like everyone else. And yet, for some reason, Shiro seemed even more like a hero, and perhaps the blue paladin's view started to align more with Keith's.

In the long run, Shiro was one of the most amazing people he knew, and he couldn't help but respect the older teen.

Shoving his hands into his pocket, he headed to the kitchen. Lance hoped getting Keith something to eat might make up for his many mistakes. Plus, eating something might make the red paladin feel better, if not put him in a better mood. Good smells drifted from the kitchen, making the blue paladin's nose wiggle slightly. Lance stepped in, only to stop in his tracks upon seeing Hunk, and remembering the conversation he had with his best friend earlier.

Hunk seemed preoccupied with the soup he was making, so Lance moved to the counter, resting his head on the counter in his folded arms. Eventually, the yellow paladin looked up, noticing the blue paladin. "How's Keith doing?"

The blue paladin sat up. "Not very well. I'm kind of worried about him, you know. Is that soup you're making? Can I take a bowl to Keith?"

Hunk stopped stirring, looking up at Lance. "Say Lance…"

"What?"

"Do you remember how you asked if we could talk about it later?"

"Not really?"

"You know, you were acting stranger earlier." Hunk frowned, his eyes filled with worry, and his mouth twisting into a pout. "You were all, like, hating on Shiro, and liking Keith suddenly. It was kind of weird. No. It was weird."

"Keith needs me." Lance let out a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck as he did so.

The yellow paladin's eyes widened. "Lance, you've not made Keith your new project have you?"

The blue paladin's eyes blinked. "What do you mean by that?"

Hunk sighed. "You've kind of got a habit of getting a new interest, and then dropping it when you've lost interest. I mean, I get the fact you're interested in helping Keith out because he's sick, and all, but what are you going to do once he gets better? Forget about him?"

"No." Lance sat up straight, the yellow paladin having caught his attention. "Keith won't stop needing me."

"Come on." Hunk shook his head. "This is Keith we're talking about. He doesn't need anybody. He can take care of himself."

"Not that kind of need. It's more of…" The blue paladin took a deep breath. "It's more like he needs a friend."

"You're missing the point." The yellow paladin let out a sigh. "I'm fully aware of the fact Keith needs friends. He also doesn't need another person abandoning him just because they grow tired of him, or they've had enough of his personality. I don't know much about him, but I have figured out that he's got some kind of abandonment issue. He also struggles with getting close to people because of it."

"I actually kind of get that." Lance looked away. "I kind of, though, found out some things that made me figure out things."

"What things?" Hunk's lips twisted up.

"Sorry." The blue paladin held up his hands. "I can't tell you. I really want to make this friendship thing with Keith work, and I think blabbing out the fact Shiro…"

"Is that why you hate Shiro." The yellow paladin's voice strange. "What could Shiro have done to Keith to make you hate him that much!"

"Nothing. I misunderstood. I've got to put things right. A bowl of that soup for Keith might help." Lance puckered out his lip, hoping his best friend would give in, but his friend gave him a quivering lip instead. The blue paladin let out a gulping sound. "Say, what is the matter with you? You aren't going to burst into tears because I did something happy are you Hunk?"

"No. I'm." Hunk looked away. "Can I say something truthful to you?"

"I'm not going to hurt Keith. He's been hurt too much, and I honestly couldn't live with myself if I do another stupid thing. Chances are I will, though."

"No. Not that."

"Then what?"

"I'm jealous."

Lance's bright blue eyes blinked a couple times. "You're jealous? You, Hunk, are jealous of someone?"

"Yeah."

"Look. Please don't be jealous of Keith."

"Wait…"

"I mean, you're still my best friend. I can have more than one best friend, you know."

"I'm jealous of you."

Lance's eyes blinked again. "I don't follow."

"You're getting to bond with Keith. The only person he's _ever_ really bonded with his Shiro."

"Oh." The blue paladin looked down. "I can't tell you what I found out, but Keith needs you to buddy. I mean, there are things only Hunk can do. Right?"

"Well…"

"Right?" Lance looked up, watching Hunk's mouth twitch once. "You're Hunk. You've got a big heart. You do things like…" The blue paladins, his eyes drifted to the soup. "Like that! You make good food! And I'm sure there will be something else you can help with! I'm sure Keith will actually get along better with you. Everyone does."

"I guess so." Hunk reached for a bowl. "I hope he gets better soon."

"Me too. He's kinda…" Lance stopped. "Never mind. Not going to say it. I'll see you later."

Taking the bowl of soup, the blue paladin walked down the corridor to Keith's room. The door to the red paladin's room opened up with a swishing motion as Lance hummed to himself. "Keith, I got you some of Hunk's … soup." The blue paladin stopped short, hearing the soft snore of the red paladin who leaned up against Allura. At first, the other teen's mind jumped to how he'd like being in such a position, but also how intimate the position was. "Um, Allura."

"He's asleep."

" _Wait. Keith doesn't get close to anyone, which means…_ " Lance's bright blue eyes blinked a couple of times, noting the look of excitement on Allura's face. He also remembered Keith's negative reaction to him entering his personal space. His voice strained slightly, but not like Keith's did. He also remembered how his mother might react if she caught a girl in his room. "That's beside the point. You're not supposed to come into his room like this, by yourself."

"You did."

" _Quiznack. She's as clueless as Keith is._ " Lance shook his head as he cleared his throat. "Allura, you're a girl. While I'd personally _love_ to be in Keith's shoes, I can't imagine he's comfortable with this."

"I simply came to check on him. He's gotten worse."

" _Still…_ " Allura was quick to interrupt, and yet Lance had a few thoughts pass through his mind. " _I really don't want to see how Keith reacts to her being here when he wakes up. And he's gotten worse?"_

"It's at the point we can't leave him alone. I was waiting for someone else to get here, so I can go and get Coran."

"How bad is it?" Lance caught sight of how pale Keith's skin had become, which said a lot. His eyes drifted to the ground, in part due to the worry he felt washing over him, but also the fact Allura seemed to be delighting in what was going on, much like how she seemed to delight in turning the castle defenses on them.

"Considering the fact Coran's not yet gotten green food goo on either Shiro or Keith at this point, and only given them medicine, I'd say pretty bad. He knows more about this, though, as he's older."

The tray got set down and managed to pull Keith away from Allura, muttering lightly into Keith's ear. "Come on, you need to wake up Keith."

The coughing fit was awful, but the red paladin's eyes were glazed over as if he didn't realize either were in the room. A thought crossed his mind and asked for Hunk to come. After a few minutes, Hunk got there, and the door opened up. The yellow paladin was confused, looking at Keith, and then the bowl of soup. "He didn't eat any."

"He's not doing to good. Allura says we can't leave him alone by himself. Can you help me get him to the sitting area for starters?"

"Oh. Sure." Hunk gently reached out for the red paladin, lifting the fellow teen into his arms. Lance picked up the tray of food. "How come Keith's foot's bandage up like that, though?"

"Um…" The blue paladin looked down at the ground. "I kind of goofed."

Hunk sighed but continued to carry Keith into the room. The red paladin stirred, fighting slightly only to stop when the exhaustion got the better of him. Hunk set him down onto the couch, and Keith set the tray down. "So…"

"So's a good…" Keith began to cough, his eyes closing.

"You mean what's going on? Allura says we're not allowed to leave you alone."

"Allura." The red paladin's dark blue eyes blinked a couple of times. Keith's cheeks flushed up while Lance watched, only for him to shake his head. One hand went up to his forehead. "Please tell me that didn't happen."

"Oh, it happened. I would have _loved_ to have been in your situation."

"What happened?"

Keith collapsed back, letting out a groan before another coughing fit hit, his hands going to his eyes. "Please…"

"Allura…" Lance stopped. "Never mind. Tell you later."

"Another thing you're not telling me."

"Sorry." The blue paladin let out a sigh. "Now we need blankets and pillows. And your soup of course."

"We're going to make Keith comfortable?"

"Yup."

"Don't… please…"

"I'm so sorry!" Hunk piped up at Keith's weak protest. "You're like, a kitten caught in the rain! I can't help but do this!"

Another groan escaped Keith's the red paladin's lips. "He didn't."

"Oh, he did."

"I don't have the energy to deal with you making fun of me."

Lance pushed his lips together. "We'll talk about the difference between making fun of and teasing someone when you get better."

"You're scaring me Lance."

"Yeah, well! You're scaring me, with how sick you've gotten! Allura says it's bad." The blue paladin piped up.

"To tired to argue." Keith's breathing slowed, indicating he'd fallen asleep. Lance pulled his fellow paladin up slightly in hopes that this would make it easier for the red paladin to breath.


	12. Fluffy Keith

He felt so very alone.

Keith lay on his bed, attempting to sleep, tucking his hands under his head as he tried to doze off. Physically and emotionally he was drained, and his entire body still aching from the Altean fever. His skin also itched, but the red paladin found himself without the energy to scratch himself. He also wished to sleep, but breathing didn't come the way he wanted to. His foot also ached, and he swallowed trying to forget how overbearing Lance was.

The door slid open, his eyes shutting tightly as the light to his room turned on. Someone, however, decided to gently nudge him away, only for Keith to near jump out of his skin. The itch felt worse, and yet the touch also made the red paladin's stomach lurch, but not in the same manner it had earlier. The young paladin took in the fact Allura was in his room, again, only for another coughing fit to rack his body as he fought back the discomfort of her being there.

He found himself getting too close, before pulling himself away. The entire situation made him feel uncomfortable. Allura touched him a few other times, making it feel as something was crawling on his stomach. He finally said something, his voice straining. "When you touch me, I don't like how I feel."

Something told him he upset her, and first, he thought it was because the _feeling_ tied into the illness, but then Allura said something that made him think. "It's not your fault you dislike being touched by me."

"I…" Realization hit that the feeling felt _good,_ and the fact it felt _good_ scared him. "I didn't say that."

"You did."

That particular statement from Allura hit hard. "I said I didn't like the way I feel, not that…"

The conversation ended with him saying, "Just, try to warn me before you try touching me."

She still touched him without asking. He could tell despite the fact he was half asleep, but this fact quickly left his mind. The next thing he was aware of was Lance muttering in his ear, and waking up in the blue paladin's arms. He couldn't make out what the blue paladin said to Allura, and felt a bit indignant when what he was snuggling with the left, his mind going to the fact he really wanted to cling to Shiro right about now.

Lance thankfully came back, and he didn't think much about it until he realized someone was carrying him like a baby. His eyes opened slightly as he struggled, and he realized that Hunk of all people was carrying him. He found himself in the lounge area of the ship, allowed to lie down so his hot cheek touched the seat. "So's a good…"

Somehow Lance figured out what he said. "You mean what's going on? Allura says we're not allowed to leave you alone."

"Allura." Keith's eyes attempted to widen despite his illness, the embarrassment from the realization setting in. He touched his forehead, wondering exactly how warm he was, swallowing as he did so. "Please tell me that didn't happen."

"Oh, it happened."

Shiro was honestly going to kill him, and yet the _why_ didn't click beyond the fact he knew parental figures got upset at that kind of thing. His older brother never got around to explaining certain things, which meant he was left with the option of Lance and Hunk explaining things. The conversation between Keith and Hunk didn't sit well and almost whimpered at the thought of them babying him. Particularly since _Hunk_ of all people said he wanted to make him comfortable.

"You're like, a kitten caught in the rain! I can't help but do this!"

"He didn't!"

" _Keith, you look like a kitten one finds at a Shinto shrine while it's raining. Where have you been?_ "

The red paladin took a deep breath, not at all sure if these matching traits sat well with him. One hand tucked under his cheek, only to fall asleep. He woke back up to find himself leaning up against Lance, the smell of food hitting his stomach. One eye twitched, not at all sure whether or not his stomach hurt because he felt like throwing up again, or if because he was simply that hungry. Keith's eyes closed. "How long since I threw up?"

Lance's hand tightened on his shoulder. "How long? This morning. It's almost dinner time."

Hunk plopped down on his other side, blowing on the spoon fool. "Open up."

Keith slid down. "No."

"Come on."

"I'm not sure if I'm hungry, or if…"

"Stop being so emo."

The red paladin sighed, closing his eyes and opening his mouth, letting the spoon slide in. The liquid tasted wonderful, and he swallowed. A coughing fit hit, and he heard Lance let out a yelp as his hand grasped the blue paladin's arm tightly. Hunk shushed him, waiting to spoon more food into his mouth. His stomach started to settle, and his throat also started to feel better.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Pidge step into the room, and Hunk gave him a break, allowing him to let his head rest against the back of the couch. Lance touched his shoulder, standing up. "Hunk. Keep an eye on Keith while I go to find a wet towel."

Keith breathed hard, attempting to control his breathing, only to flinch when Hunk attempted to massage his shoulders. His dark blue eyes opened, realizing that Pidge had moved closer. Pidge also looked angry. The red paladin's eyes blinked a couple of times. "What is it Pidge?"

"Are you keeping something from us?"

The red paladin's foot twitched, making him wince as he attempted to sit up. Another coughing fit hit before the deep breaths came, and Hunk patted his back. "Want some more soup?"

"Maybe later." Keith's eyes drifted to the ground. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, are you keeping secrets?"

"Everybody has their secrets Pidge." A hand drifted up to his forehead, letting out a deep breath as his head started to hurt. He flopped over, only realizing he'd managed to flop into Hunk's lap when the yellow paladin began to pet his hair. Keith's eyes snapped open. "Seriously, Hunk, don't."

"It's soft like a kitten!"

"What is soft like a kitten?" Lance's voice made Keith's eyes snap open, a groan escaping his lips, hoping another coughing fit wouldn't hit.

"Soft…" A giggle, yes, an actual giggle, escaped the mouth of the blue paladin. "Look who's getting all cuddly wuddly!"

"Do I need to remind you of the pain you will feel when I get better?" Keith flinched as Lance ruffled his hair as well.

"Oh, it's worth it. Actually…"

The next thing Keith knew, the phone went off.

* * *


	13. Secrets Kept

" _Who's Keith?_ "

The answer honestly remained unanswered, as Pidge found herself unable to read the overly emo punk. The smallest of the male teens honestly got hurt way to easily, and yet, unlike Lance she didn't hold that against him. She felt, though, Lance's reference to Keith being an alien, implication being that the red paladin was Galra, that was uncalled for.

Pidge did find herself able to put together the fact Shiro and Keith knew each other, but how she couldn't tell. The black paladin did normally treat Keith like everyone else, and yet every so often something would slip. The green paladin wouldn't call it favoritism, though, as the way Shiro acted honestly reminded her of how over protective her mother could be at times. Mother was something she didn't want to think about, as their last conversation didn't end well due to that over protective nature.

Then, the incident happened.

The green paladin couldn't help but notice how Shiro flipped when Keith got hurt, the over protective nature kicking in. Asking the black paladin wasn't an option as the older teen was an adult and an authority. Pidge was raised not to pry into the business of adults, so the red paladin was the only option. Unfortunately, Lance ruined this option as he chooses to antagonize the red paladin.

As frustrating as that was, even more so was the way Shiro went into overprotective mode again.

However, the fact Keith barfed all over Shiro was hysterical.

And…

She found herself a little worried that Keith got sick like that." _Yeah, Keith might be emo, but he's nice when he wants to be. Or at least, unlike someone else I know, he does try._ "

Coran's decision to test the vomit lessened the worry, but also perked her interest. She followed after, remembering how her father and brother were interested in biology. The green paladin was far more interested in robotics, and yet Pidge couldn't help but pick up on any bit of info anyone left her. She peered over Coran's shoulder, watching the data.

" _Altean virus._ " She pushed some buttons to find out if the virus could affect humans like Alteans but saw the answer blinking in front of her eyes. She wanted to trust Coran, of all people, to tell her the truth and wanted to believe the machine was malfunctioning. Yet, she also found herself needing to believe her own eyes. Instead, she decided to work on robots. She came back, suddenly deciding firmly in her mind that she saw what she did, and that Coran had his reasons for not saying anything. She, in fact, blurted out her thoughts to everyone. "Well, apparently we can't catch what Keith has."

"Really? Good riddance. Keith got what he deserved."

"That's not nice Lance."

Except, there was one problem which made her want to side with Coran's lie. She blurted something else out. "The thing is, Keith shouldn't have caught the bug."

That, of course, upset Hunk, who was being really nice and _trying_ to defend Keith. And this made Pidge question even more what Coran did. Particularly with the fact, Shiro got sick as well. Allura agreed with the idea that the virus mutated. Telling Hunk not to worry didn't help either, and yet there was also the fact Lance didn't get sick. That, in turn, led her to think of wisecracks regarding how Hispanics or those who were stupid couldn't get sick. She wasn't sure what was more tactless but figured both were.

She couldn't help though but want to make a smart aleck response.

Matt once told her this was some kind of defense mechanism, to which she told him the reason she didn't like being around people was because they were stupid, and didn't entertain her the way a computer or robot could. However, she did find Keith, Hunk, and Lance interesting. She also found Shiro interesting, and she told herself this had to do with the fact the black paladin was her brother's best friend, but also classmate back at the garrison.

Of course, there was the weird coincidence that Lance also no longer hated Keith, making her wonder if he'd gotten sick after all, but he said he hadn't. Thus, she decided to re-run the simulation, but on her computer so that Coran couldn't stop her. Pidge knew how to interface with the ship's computers with her own, and found her attention drawn to the computer.

It never once worked.

She was correct in assuming the virus hadn't mutated, but that it also wasn't able to transfer to humans. This meant Coran was indeed hiding something, which unfortunately perked he curiosity. She thought to stave off her curiosity by paying Shiro a visit, and for some reason, she was able to focus her mind elsewhere. The door swished open, and she opened her mouth to call out to Shiro…

… only to see Lance in there, pushing Shiro down.

She felt her throat tighten up, before blurting out a quick apology and hurrying out of the room. Her cheeks felt hot, and her mind whirled. She's always assumed Lance was into girls, but apparently from what she saw he was also into guys. Pidge, after all, believed what she saw. This led her mind to conclude that Shiro was also into her guys. The black paladin was her brother's best friend, which led her to conclude…

"Come on Pidge. What's wrong with that? It means maybe Shiro might end up being your brother." The green paladin's lips pushed together, her mind concluding that for some reason that _wasn't_ what she wanted. Why? Her mind also came to a quick conclusion, only for her to think, " _No. I'm not into girly gossipy things. I'll leave that to Allura…_ " Pidge's eyes blinked, suddenly thinking of Shiro with Allura, and her hands shot up to ruffle her head. "You know what. This is what happens when I have a puzzle, and I _don't_ try to figure it out."

She headed to her computer, staring at the simulation. After a few minutes, she thought something else. "If a variable doesn't work, change it." She proceeded to type in various scenarios, including some wacky ones. One involved Sendak finding some way of mutating the virus using his DNA, but that turned out to not change. Pidge tilted her head, thinking of yet another one, trying to distract her mind.

"It worked." The screen flashed that the variable worked, and a smile spread across Pidge's face. The smile fell when the green paladin realized what she'd plugged in. "No. It can't be." She continued to plug in more variables, then realized the only factor which worked was the one she plugged in. "It can't be."

_Altean-human hybrid…_

… _also, something else…_

In frustration, Pidge finally closed her computer, before standing up. She thought about confronting Shiro, only to remember the rather embarrassing scenario she found him in with Lance. Taking a deep breath, she decided to simply wander, eventually arriving in the lounge. Her mind at first concluded she was having a nightmare seeing the three teenage boys around her age acting way too chummy.

However, stepping closer, she couldn't help but notice how out of it Keith was. Hunk, of course, couldn't help but baby anything he deemed to be defenseless and need of his help, and she couldn't help but think Lance would use this against the red paladin later on. That had to be the real reason. Her mouth opened when Keith asked her what she was up to. "Are you keeping something from us?

Keith, of course, seemed confused, but then again, the red paladin got confused a lot, but for different reasons than Lance did. Check – Keith's intelligence level was not that high, and yet she wouldn't call him stupid either. Then again, he was seriously out of it, and might not guess what she was getting at. She watched as Keith flopped over, her mouth pushing together trying to not laugh at the fact the red paladin managed to flop into Hunk's lap.

She tried not to laugh as Hunk's fingers wiggled, the temptation of Keith's hair getting to be to month, but also choked back the pain throbbing in her chest. She heard the words "soft like a kitten" and watched as Lance finally got the picture to blackmail Keith with later. She slipped out of the room, heading off by herself, wondering why she couldn't laugh along with the other guys.

Pidge's lips pushed together, remembering how Shiro said something about being true to oneself and not hiding things, and yet there he and Keith were, hiding things.

A lot of things apparently.

After all, the only way _both_ could be sick was if they were brothers.

She needed to verify this, but she did feel like it as hot tears started to trickle down her cheeks.


	14. Awkward Attempts

She, despite better judgment, headed to the kitchens to get Hunk. The fact the yellow paladin suddenly felt needed to be made Allura feel a little better, but in the long run, the fact Lance somehow managed to get closer to Keith rubbed her the wrong way. Add to this, Keith had, in fact, told her he didn't like her touching him. The princess wondered if she should pursue trying to bond with him, only for her memory to remember what the previous red paladin told her about eventually meeting her knight in shining armor. It felt right, but…

" _I'm not sure if I want a knight in shining armor._ "

From the kitchen, she started to track down Coran, who looked up at her with the grin of his. "Nice timing princess. I've just prepared a big batch of food goo to put on the spots caused by the Altean fever. Help me carry this container. I figure we handle the red paladin first, as I may need your help to hold him down. He's already refused to take his medicine."

"So you already told me." Allura took a deep breath. "What do you know about Altean fever?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Specifically, I'm thinking of the occurrence where it is more severe than other cases. The blue paladin told me her illness was severe as a child, and it seems to be the same way with Keith."

Coran stared, his fingers pulling on his mustache. "Oh. That makes sense."

"What do you mean it makes sense?"

"Well…" The royal advisor to clear his throat. "I mean to say, it makes sense why you were asking. It's not as if there is anything else to that."

"Oh." Allura took the container from Coran, not completely sure about what he said. "I'm worried about him."

"You aren't still on this, you know, transference of your crush from the previous red paladin to the new one?"

" _It's not just a transference._ " The two headed to the red paladin's room, the door swishing open. However, upon arriving they found Keith nowhere in the room. The princess cleared her throat. "He's not here. Lance isn't either."

"Why would Lance be here?"

"He was supposed to be keeping an eye on Keith due to how bad things got." Allura took a deep breath.

"Perhaps the red paladin needed to use the restroom, and the other paladin helped him. What a bonding activity!"

The princess opened her mouth to say this reason had better be the reason the two took off, only to stand there with her mouth hanging open, the idea of bonding over such things disgusting her. Her crystal blue eyes blinked, suddenly wondering what Keith's reaction to such a bonding activity would be, only to shake her head. There was also the fact the red paladin wasn't well. She spoke up, her voice tight from the rather awkward suggestion. "I don't think so."

"Oh. Perhaps we should find them." Coran's voice strain. "Perhaps we should find number four before we go check on number one? Or should we get number one to help us find number four?"

"Let Shiro rest." Allura's eyes narrowed, taking a deep breath. "I'm sure there's a good reason for all of this. I'll go one way, while you go another." She wasn't sure where to begin looking, and instead found Pidge first. The small, green paladin's face was wet, and she actively wiped the tears away from her face. The princess's eyes blinked. "Are you okay Pidge?"

"I'm okay." Pidge sniffled, pushing up her eyeglasses. Her lip trembled.

"Are you sure? You do remember when I said you could talk to me about anything?"

"It's not as if I'm upset at finding out that Shiro is gay or anything like that." Pidge's mouth twisted into a frown, sulking as she tried to hide how she was feeling.

Allura's lips twisted, confused as to why the youngest of the paladins would say what she just did. "Well, Shiro isn't happy. He's not feeling well, but is also worried about Keith." The princess watched Pidge's sniffling stop, but also how the green paladin got that look in her eyes which said she thought Allura had said something stupid. "What?"

"Nothing…"

The conversation between the two went silent, her mouth twisting up. "You wouldn't know where Keith is?"

Pidge's eyes blinked a couple of times, her frown deepening. "He's in the lounge."

"Why? He should be resting."

"He is."

Allura's crystal blue eyes blinked, her mouth opening. "Wait…"

"Lance and Hunk are trying to make him comfortable, but to be honest they're also taking advantage of how out of it Keith is."

"I'm still not following."

Pidge's lips twitched up, thinking carefully. "I don't know how to explain it. Is it the part about making him comfortable that needs to be explained, or the fact they're taking advantage of the fact he's sick?"

It clicked, in a way. "Oh…"

"I'm not really much help, with this whole making people feel better." The green paladin glanced away. "So I'm going to go do what I'm good at."

Allura opened her mouth to say something encouraging, but Pidge managed to slip away, quick on her feet. The princess swallowed, not at all sure what she would find when she got to the lounge. Her eyes blinked, taking in the piles of pillows and blankets. Keith slept, his head resting in Hunk's lap, his breath's coming in deep pulls. Hunk glanced up, a smile on his face. "Allura, Keith's hair's soft, like a kitten?"

"What?" Her eyes narrowed, remembering Coran's crack regarding bonding in the bathrooms, and wondered if this was another similar activity. She watched Hunk touch Keith's hair and shuddered. The idea of just anyone touching her hair didn't seem right, and yet for a moment, she thought she wouldn't mind if Keith did indeed touch her hair. She walked over, watching Keith sleep, not realizing that Hunk was playing with his hair.

Still…

A device shoved in front of her face, allowing her to see a picture of Keith, his cheeks flushed from both fever and embarrassment, his entire body to tired to fight. "I got blackmail."

"Seriously, what…" Allura's eyes narrowed.

"You know, a kitten is a very soft animal on Earth." Lance's voice cooed as he leaned over with his phone to get another picture.

"A baby animal." Hunk piped up.

Her crystal blue eyes narrowed. " _So they're both comparing Keith to a baby animal._ "

"I'm taking pictures so that I can use it against him later on."

"I am still not following."

"Lance is going to threaten to release the pictures if Keith doesn't do what he wants him to do."

Allura thought over this carefully, watching Lance slip his phone into his back pocket. "You do realize practically everyone already knows about said picture? I mean, who are you going to show it to? Coran? Shiro?"

"Uh…" Lance took a deep breath. "That's actually a good point. I guess I'm just doing it so I can tease him about it later. It's what friends do."

"I'm not sure if it is." Allura took a deep breath.

"It's a guy thing." Hunk piped up.

"Like bonding in the bathroom."

"Oh yeah, we definitely do that." Lance piped up.

"Are all males of your species this immature?"

Hunk held up a finger. "We're not considered adults until we're eighteen, and we're still teens for one year more. And! We're adolescents until we turn twenty-five, studies show."

"Oh, come on! Everybody needs to be a kid every so often. Even Shiro gets that." Lance piped up. The smile fell from his face. "Keith doesn't though. He doesn't know how to relax at all."

"I think relaxing, in this case, means sleeping." Allura watched Lance look up at her, his eyes widening in disbelief. She held up her container of food goo, nodding at it.

Hunk's eyes widened. "Man, don't tell me you're going to make Keith eat that. He's feeling bad enough as it is."

"No, this is for the itching. Could you wake him up?"

The yellow paladin looked down, just as the red paladin burst into a coughing fit. Hunk's facial features twisted up in worry, and his big hand rubbed Keith's back. "Hey. You should wake up for a sec Keith."

Keith's eyes blinked open, before attempting to push himself up. Hunk helped him, while Lance watched. He muttered something which was barely intelligible. His eyes noticed Allura, which made the two dark eyes blink. "Alu…"

"Hi. How are you feeling?" A smile spread across her face. The red paladin simply stared, a blank look on his face. Allura felt her smile fall. "I'll take that as a no."

His eyes blinked a couple of times before he tried speaking again. "Nani… nani-shi…" He coughed out the last part. "…teruno."

"What?"

"Hai."

A sigh escaped her lips, and she leaned over. Her free hand tugged at his shirt, lifting it up so she could put the food goo onto the spots she knew had to be itching. Keith's mind didn't register what she was doing right away, but Lance's hand latched onto her sleeve. "Allura…"

The tone of voice Lance used seemed to jar the red paladin, and more words stumbled out of his mouth. "Ie.."

"Yeah, not cool. Gross." Lance muttered as the red paladin received enough adrenaline to scuttle backward, nearly knocking the jar of food goo out of Allura's hands. Hunk let out a gasp as Keith unintentionally sat down in his lap, his heart pounding.

"Um…" The yellow paladin's eyes blinked.

"I get the fact the food goo's gross, and that's reason for him to say ick…" Allura's hand reached out again, only for Keith to say something else that was unintelligible just as Lance grabbed her hand.

"Shinai."

"Okay. That's no reason to curse at princess Keith. She won't touch you, kay?"

"Shinakatta."

"Seriously…"

"That's a curse word?" Allura felt a lump in her throat that she attempted to swallow.

"Nai. Dōshite ikenai no?" Keith started to cough

"Oh…" Hunk's lips pushed together, one of his big hands reaching up to pat Keith's back as the red paladin continued to stand there, not realizing he was sitting in the other paladin's lap yet. "I think you're speaking Japanese Keith."

The red paladin turned his head, suddenly realizing how close he was to Hunk. He attempted to move away, only to almost fall to the floor. Hunk's arm tugged him back onto the seat in the lounge so he was now sitting next to the other paladin, his cheeks red. His eyes were wide, his breaths causing another coughing fit.

Lance tugged on Allura's sleeve, and she turned to see the look of irritation on the blue paladin's face. Reluctantly, she followed after him, stepping out of the room. The paladin's arms wide. "What were you thinking?"

"I'm taking care of Keith."

"Allura!" Lance took a deep breath. "What don't you get about the fact you're a girl?"

"So, girls are inferior or something? We only exist so you can have a wife to make babies?"

The blue paladin's mouth opened, stopping short upon thinking her words over. "So, I'll admit that does way on my mind."

"Lance!"

"But!"

"I'm seriously not going to listen to this!"

"This is about Keith, not me. And anyways, my family members would flip if I took a girl into my room."

"It's not his room!"

"Allura…" Lance took a deep breath. "You're a girl. It's awkward. Totally awkward."

"Says the person who had no problems taking pictures for blackmail!"

She watched his eyes blinked a couple of times. "Yeah, I probably shouldn't have done that."

"And?"

"And that doesn't change the fact…" Lance sighed. "It's a different kind of awkward! Shiro could explain better! Actually…" A smile flitted across his face. "There you have it! Shiro would be telling you off."

"Oh really?" Allura's eyes narrowed. "Because I'm a girl."

"Yes."

Allura shoved the container at Lance, pleased when some of the food goo splashed onto him. "Fine. You're in charge of making sure this gets put on him. You and Hunk. All I want to do is help."


	15. Can't Kill, Am Dying

Now, he wished to be alone.

Lance and Hunk would both indeed feel his wrath when he got better, but he also hoped that Shiro would never hear one word about the two thinking his hair was soft like a kitten.

However, he also felt safe.

There was something about being alone that he never liked. This was, particularly true when he was sick. Hunk's lap was also soft, and comfy, for some reason reminding him of Shiro. The black paladin had more than once referred to him as being adorable like a little lost kitten. Brothers apparently could get away with certain things, but he'd deal with his thoughts on the subject once he got better.

Hunk's lap lulled him to sleep, at least partially.

"Shiro…"

"There, there. You'll get better soon Keith."

In all honestly, he couldn't tell if that was Shiro in his dreams talking, or Hunk who he'd managed to latch onto. He was half asleep, feeling someone playing with his hair, something he wouldn't under normal circumstances let anyone do, but he also heard something about being like a kitten. He'd already started to wake up with a coughing fit when Hunk rubbed his back telling him to wake up.

He felt dizzy as he sat up, finding he needed the yellow paladin to help him. She proceeded to ask him questions, and he responded asking what she was doing. His eyes watched her hand reach to tug at his shirt, realizing exactly what she was doing. His stomach lurched, his throat tightening, and he remembering all to well the confusing feeling of liking and disliking her touch at the same time.

Only to land in Hunk's lap.

Getting sick was never, ever his thing.

To make matters worse, he was speaking in Japanese, something the so called universal translator refused to translate. Sitting in Hunk's lap was embarrassing, yet sitting right next to the yellow paladin was also comforting, at least to a point. He watched as Lance stepped out of the room, taking Allura with him. He felt another feeling he couldn't put his finger on.

Eventually, he came back, with the nasty food goo. Lance frowned. "So…"

"Dakaranani."

"Keith…"

"Right…" He slowed down his speech, thinking of the English words. "So what?"

"Yeah. Do you itch?"

Keith pulled in his breath, breaking out into a coughing fit. When he finished, he became rather irate, or as much as he could in said state. "That's personal!"

"So you never told Shiro whether you itched or not?"

"Yeah. Shiro onii-chan told me that's not appropriate kaiwa."

"Conversation?"

"Yes…"

"You called Shiro big brother." Hunk chuckled.

"Um…" Lance cleared his throat.

"Lance…"

"I mean, it's kind of funny, considering the two of you aren't related, but you two are so much like siblings." The yellow paladin paused, allowing Keith to turn to look at him in confusion. "I want you to call me nii-chan."

"Hunk, you're messed up in the head."

"But it would mean Keith thinks of me as a brother just like I think of you two as brothers!"

"Anyways. Ignore Hunk. He gets mushy sentimental all the time, but you should know that by now. And yeah, you need to tell us if those spots itch, cause we got to put this stuff on."

"No."

"So you don't itch."

"Oh, I itch. You're just not putting that on me."

Lance's lips twisted into a smirk. Lance's lips twisting into a smirk wasn't a good thing. Keith knew this despite struggling to read people. Lance seemed to be the most obnoxiously readable person, at least at the worst times possible. Worse yet, Hunk could read Lance as well.

Keith felt Hunk pull up his arms. While Lance dove for his shirt, pulling up the dark shirt over his head so his upper body was naked. "Stop!" A coughing fit kicked in just as Lance's fingers reached forward, some food goo on his fingers. The blue paladin was quick, with the cold, wet substance. While the food goo did indeed settle the incessant itching, it still felt gross and sent a shudder down Keith's spine. His coughing fit seceded, only or him to choose to pull away. "No!"

Lance's mouth twisted up into amusement. "No? Come on. All of us have had chicken pox before, so we know you've got to be itching all over."

He had to get away. Keith moved to stand up, his entire body shaking as he did so. He set both feet down, only for a jolt of pain to shoot through his entire body, a whimper escaping his mouth. Instead of taking weight off his injured foot, he proceeded to grab his shirt from Lance, but not with as much gusto as he would like. He attempted to turn, despite gritting his teeth. In the process, he nearly fell.

"Keith…" Hunk stood up. "I don't think you should be going anywhere."

"I can do it myself." The red paladin grumbled, attempting to walk away.

Lance grabbed his arm, unfortunately with the hand which he dipped the food goo into. "I'm kind of finding that hard to believe."

"Bathroom… I'm going to the bathroom." Keith put his injured foot down, only to let out a whimper. He felt Hunk scoot over, lifting his arm over his shoulder.

"I'll help you walk. Your foot's injured, remember."

"No thanks to a certain someone."

"Hey! I've been trying to help!"

The red paladin remained silent, not wanting to say anything more about how unhelpful Lance had so far been. In reality, Keith wished to forget every bit of trouble created by the blue paladin, what with how tired he was. The journey to the bathroom was a long one, yet somehow he managed to reach for the door. "I can handle it from here."

"You sure?"

Keith's mind didn't register Hunk and simply headed to the sink. Upon arriving, he leaned over, his hands clutching the cold sink, only to start shaking uncontrollably. Lance stepped in, something Keith noticed as the blue paladin appeared behind in the bathroom, his mouth twisted with worry. "Say… you look awful."

The smallest of the male teens stared at his reflection, noticing the rings forming under his eyes. Spots also covered his face and upper body. He struggled to stand, not wanting to put weight on his foot. His lungs itched horribly as he stared into the mirror. "I want Shiro."

"Um…" Hunk's voice remained soft. The yellow paladin's fingers began to drum on the door. "Keith. Aren't you the same age as Lance and me?"

"Lance and you? I don't know."

"Yeah…" Lance reached towards the sink, making Keith look down to see the container of green food goo. "Maybe we shouldn't be taxing Keith's brain right now."

"Maybe, but…"

"Just shows how sick he is, doesn't it?"

"I guess."

Keith stared at the container. He reached one finger in to touch the offending food goo, shuddering upon realizing this was supposed to go on his body. His dark eyes blinked as his head suddenly felt light headed, and his body fell backwards.

"Woah!" Lance's voice came from close by, and he felt the blue paladin's hand's grab onto his arms, before feeling himself lowered to the ground. For a few seconds, Keith's vision blurred, only to find himself looking up at the ceiling while Lance peered down at him. He could see Hunk's face in the doorway and thus held the door open unintentionally. "You're not okay."

Keith pulled a hand over his eyes, his breathing harsh. "Please. I want Shiro."

"Shiro's sick to. Remember?" Lance let out a deep rough.

"Maybe…" Hunk's voice trembled. "Maybe we should get Coran? Do you think Keith would be more comfortable with him? I mean, he's an adult like Shiro is, an adult we're supposed to trust."

"No. Get Shiro."

"Um. Okay."

The red paladin's body continued to tremble, despite the cold floor of the bathroom cooling down his fever slightly. Lance's voice cleared. "So. Shiro's going to hopefully be here soon. He'll know what to do."


	16. Hush Now, Little One

Two dark eyes continued to stare up at the ceiling, unable to sleep despite the fever wracking his body. Shiro took a deep breath, one of his hands reaching over to scratch his shoulder. The black paladin couldn't help but worry about Keith, as he'd worried all his life about Keith. In fact, the oldest of the paladins couldn't help but think of this as his job, even though Lance said otherwise.

The black paladin sat up, his shoulder muscles tensing up as his arms went back to support himself. Shiro made up his mind to finally go and check on Keith when his door opened, with Hunk this time appearing in his doorway. The older paladin's eyebrows shot up, his mouth twisting in a soft, very amused smile as he looked at the young paladin.

Realization quickly hit that something was upsetting Hunk that he would need to deal with. Even before the yellow paladin gasped out the word "help", he knew something wasn't right. Shiro pushed himself forward slightly, his dark eyes blinking at the yellow paladin, taking the situation in slowly. He finally took a deep breath, his mind foggy. "What did Lance do this time?"

"He…" Hunk's eyes blinked a couple of times, his eyelashes fluttering as his mouth pushed together. "I believe Lance caused an accident where Keith's foot got hurt, but that is neither here nor there. You know what I mean?"

Shiro swallowed, his shoulder's tensing up, but his arm ached right where it connected to the Galra contraption attached to his body. "Not exactly."

"Keith's really, really bad. I mean, he's really, really sick." Hunk hand's lifted up, twitching slightly. "We're trying to get food goo on Keith, to stop the itching you know. But that's not going well, so Lance sent me to come and get you. Coran's not brought you food goo? I mean, aren't you itching as well?"

The black paladin reached up to scratch, one eye closing. "Honestly, I was ignoring the fact I was itching until you mentioned putting food goo on the spots." Shiro pushed himself up. "Lead the way."

A smile spread across Hunk's face as if in his mind the older paladin could fix everything. The two arrived at the bathroom, where Shiro quickly took in the situation. Despite feeling feverish, he moved forward to Keith's side, kneeling down on the ground. One hand reached out to touch the younger teen's cheek, which resulted in the red paladin opening up his eyes. "Shiro…"

"Hey. I'm here now. Let's get you back to your room." The older teen noticed the bandage around Keith's foot, his lips pushing together in frustration.

"I think the lounge is closer." Lance's voice strained, the worry all to obvious.

"And we've set it up kinda like a slumber party. But not, because it's only Keith we're making comfortable. Or we were trying to." Hunk blurted out from behind.

Gently, Shiro reached one arm under Keith's back, flinching slightly upon feeling how warm his _otouto_ was. Taking a deep breath, he gently lifted the younger paladin up, before looking Lance right in the eye. "Could you get some water and a washcloth?" The black paladin stood up, feeling Keith's head rest against his shoulder. The red paladin's troubled breathing became all the more evident. The older teen turned, noting Lance in the doorway. "Hunk? Could you find Coran, and see if he has any medicine which may bring down Keith's fever, but also help with his breathing?"

"Yeah."

"Shiro…"

The black paladin blinked, before turning his head to look at Lance. "The washcloth and water will help a lot. Some fresh bandages as well."

Shiro then headed out, taking the short walk to the lounge area. His eyebrows shot up, and his mouth twisted up slightly at the sight of all the pillows and blankets, knowing full well the other two were trying, even though they kept failing. Gently, he set Keith down, realizing that his brother's shirt was missing, or more of a part of the mess. He knelt down nearby, only for Shiro to find himself jarred away by a sudden cough.

Shiro reached out to rub Keith's back, only to freeze upon seeing his mechanical hand. His younger brother's eyes blinked, noticing the sudden change in behavior, before nodding his head. "It's okay."

"I've already hurt you once."

"Didn't mean to," Keith muttered. "Don't care what Lance says. You ain't abusive. Not at all. You're the best big brother ever. So don't you ever forget that."

Shiro took a deep breath, brushing Keith's dark locks away from his forehead, before touching his own forehead against the hot surface. "Not good."

"You already knew that though. That I had a fever."

"Yeah, but I've got a fever too kiddo. I shouldn't be able to tell you have one." The black paladin closed his eyes, his thoughts drifting to the times in the past Keith had become ill as he waited for Lance to return with the water. "Sorry that this is different than normal."

"Shiro, don't apologize." Keith attempted to swallow, making the older paladin open his eyes up to look at his younger brother.

"Don't apologize when I've got so much to apologize to you for?" Shiro swallowed, his own throat dry. He looked at Keith's foot, the anxiety from his time as a captive building up. Memories of not being able to get back, to see that his younger brother was doing all right flickered through his mind.

A hand reached up, grabbing onto Shiro's sleeve. "Stay. Please."

"I…" The black paladin's dark eyes blinked. "I can't make any promises."

Shiro watched Keith flinch, before turning to look at him, his hand still clutching onto the dark sleeve. His younger brother's dark-blue eyes were glazed over slightly as Keith's mouth pushed together in a tight line. "As long as you can?"

"Yeah. I'll stay." Shiro let his eyes closed, his next breath of air escaping as he mentally relaxed. Neither spoke, a lot going unsaid between the two. The black paladin simply listened to Keith's rough breathing, noting the difference from his own breathing. The nagging feeling at the back of his mind simply wouldn't go away.

"I got what you wanted Shiro."

The black paladin startled, looking up at Lance. The younger paladin looked at him nervously, and Shiro let out a sigh. "Thanks."

"You look tired. After you finish, I can sit up with Keith."

Again, Keith flinched. Shiro reached up to rub the bridge of his nose, Keith's shirt still clutched in his other hand. "I'm staying. I promised him I would."

This caused Keith to look away, muttering under his breath. "I'm here…"

"Yeah, but you need your sleep to." Lance looked over at the other couch. "And there's plenty of room, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I think so." Shiro blinked, watching as Keith turned to look at him, his eyes sparkling. His younger brother always got that look when something pleased him. Quickly, the black paladin dunked the shirt over Keith's head, pulling it down as his younger brother startled, obviously trying to take in the situation. Shiro took a deep sigh, fond memories floating back to the surface. He brushed them aside, knowing that by the time Keith got better, he would be utterly mortified if he wasn't already that way.

Lance was watching carefully, before holding out the drink to Keith. "Here. Drink up."

Keith nearly fell over at the action, and Shiro found himself shuffling around a pit so one hand could support the back of Keith's head, and the other one – the mechanical one, could take the glass of water from Lance. The oldest paladin held the glass of water to Keith's lips, and he watched his younger brother suck in the water. "Hey. Slow down. You're already sick enough as it is." This caused another coughing fit, making Shiro wince. " _That doesn't sound good at all._ "

"Coming through!" Coran's voice nearly made Shiro jump out of his skin, his throat clenching at the sound of the royal advisor. The man mushed a cart, with a breathing machine, Hunk not far behind. "Allura said something about you being worse than normal for this particular virus. Are you going to take your medicine this time, young man?"

Shiro watched as Keith grimaced, a sigh escaping his mouth knowing full well the red paladin hated any form of medicine. A certain someone had never been fond of bitter tastes, but the black paladin remembered actually having bitter tasting stuff splatter across his face when Keith was really young. It was far from a pleasant experience. Taking a deep breath, he let it out, hoping the red paladin knew he was serious. "I will hold you down if I have to."

"After that, you can eat some of my soup." Hunk piped up.

The black paladin watched the color drain from the red paladin's face if there was any left to drain. Keith was typically the loner, yet he was now having more than half the humanoid population in the castle attempt to nurse him back to health. On one side, there was that desire from long, long ago – a desire for Keith to finally make friends with someone. On the other, the situation was far outside of the red paladin's comfort zone.

"And guess what! I can hold you down just like Shiro can!"

Shiro's free hand clapped over his mouth, releasing the support he put on the back of Keith's head, allowing the red paladin to flop onto the couch. The cushions let out air, and the other sick paladin let out a sigh as his eyes closed. The black paladin couldn't help but laugh and knew Keith would kill him. Except, the typical response never came, and soon he found himself staring down at the red paladin who simply just lay there. "Wow. You're pretty sick, as you've not reacted."

"I think…" Keith muttered something, which was possibly meant to be, "… already established that", only for it to come out in a jumbled mess. Coran simply stepped around his cart, plucking Keith up almost like a rag doll.

"Will you give him the medicine number one?"

Shiro let out a sigh, reaching over to the cup on the cart, shoving the water glass into Lance's hands. Two fingers reached out, plugging Keith's nose, while the thumb of his other hand pried the teen's mouth open. The medicine then poured down Keith's throat, and Shiro clamped both hands over Keith's mouth. He saw the red paladin's throat instinctively try to gag, only for the medicine to finally be swallowed down.

"Now, to eat something."

Keith was definitely going to kill every single one of them when this was over, but most definitely Lance, who was likely to not let the red paladin live down this moment of weakness. Hunk, however, enjoyed playing nursemaid a little to much, but still managed to get Keith to eat half the bowl before a shake of the head said a certain someone couldn't handle any more. It didn't help that coughing fits occurred the entire time.

Coran then strapped on the breathing mask, and a mist started to cover Keith's mouth and nose as he breathed. Hunk's eyes went wide. "So, did you like the soup? I mean, it's okay if you didn't, just as long as you didn't out right hate it."

Keith's eyes blinked before he held up a thumb which made a smile spread across Hunk's face. Only, his eyes blinked a few more times before Coran let him down easily. "He's going to be out for a while. You should be resting number one."

"Hunk and Lance did a rather good job of putting this together, so I think I'll rest here." Shiro couldn't help but feel appreciative, even though he knew Keith found the situation completely stressful. He moved to another area, closing his eye so he could doze off, one eye opening up when Hunk and Lance whispered about getting the green goo on Keith.

"Yeah, but he's going to be mad Lance."

"We'll just do the stuff we don't have to remove his pants for, okay? He'll feel better, right Coran."

"Right."

"Fine. I'll go with it."

Coran's voice came from nearby. "You to, number one."

Shiro let out a sigh. "I'm just not scratching. Keith's not either right now, so hold off you two. It's an order."


	17. Family

She felt unbridled anger, even though she knew both people in question didn't necessarily deserve said anger.

The clues were all there, that Keith and Shiro were hiding something, which definitely bothered the green paladin. The fact the two were hiding something didn't set well in Pidge's stomach, as she'd been upfront with everyone about being a girl, yet that made the whole thing even harder when she thought Shiro would have pushed for being truthful with oneself, but also with each other.

As much as she hated it, she needed to play detective, to put her mind at ease, or unfortunately make her worries even worse. The fact she might not be able to trust her friends hurt and hot tears flowed down her cheeks. She hadn't noticed approaching her until the princess spoke. "Are you okay Pidge?"

"I'm okay." Pidge looked up, sniffling as she did so. She pushed up her eyeglasses, her lip trembling. It was honestly a lie, as she wasn't alright, but she didn't want the princess butting in. Allura was nice but honestly to girly in her mind.

"Are you sure? You do remember when I said you could talk to me about anything?"

"It's not as if I'm upset at finding out that Shiro is gay or anything like that." Pidge realized what she said after it came out of her mouth. It wasn't the reason she'd been crying, but it had hit hard earlier when she'd walked in on Shiro and Lance like she had. " _Quiznack, I don't have a crush on Shiro. That's just… gross._ "

And yet that feeling was there, frustrating that she'd started to crush on their leader, and her older brother's best friend despite the annoying age gap. Pidge was trying to figure out which secret was worse, only for Allura to say something strange. "Well, Shiro isn't happy. He's not feeling well, but is also worried about Keith."

Pidge couldn't cry at that. The comment wasn't exactly a stupid one, but it wasn't the most logical one either. " _She didn't understand what I meant, did she?_ "

"What?"

"Nothing…" Pidge fidgeted slightly. " _I'm not sure how she'll react to finding out what I really meant._ "

"You wouldn't know where Keith is?"

" _Okay. So everybody is acting suspiciously today. My life sucks._ " Pidge stared ahead after her eyes blinked, not wanting to think of the possible implications of Allura's words. "He's in the lounge." The conversation proceeded to simply be weird, and a way to personal, but she finally got away. The green paladin found herself sitting in front of the computer that Coran claimed messed up.

She couldn't though bring herself to touch the buttons, thinking how much of a betrayal her actions were.

It honestly didn't matter that she felt betrayed by both Shiro and Keith, she had to in her mind find some kind of justification for diving into their private lives, and settling her curiosity definitely wasn't an actual justification. Doing it because of the betrayal, that seemed like revenge, with no real justice behind it. Her lip curled up, hot tears at the corners of her eyes, frustrated at how awful she felt.

And then it clicked.

Pidge relaxed slightly, her shoulders relaxing, her legs folding up into her usual position. The justification was Keith. Specifically, it was odd that only two of their members became sick like they did. However, now it was beyond that. Keith was seriously sick, which didn't seem right. Taking a deep breath, she started to run her scenarios again, only to still come to the same conclusion.

Outside of Alteans, only a human who was also an Altean hybrid could possibly contract that possible virus.

There was also though that something else, that thing she needed to confirm. Taking a deep breath, she paused again, wondering if she was doing the right thing. If Shiro and Keith were siblings, there must be a reason why neither said anything. However, she also remembered how Coran hid the results from her, which meant…

"It's not just Shiro and Keith who are keeping something."

Pidge liked Coran, even though he was a bit of a goof. She and Hunk learned a lot about Altean tech from the man, yet there he was hiding something from them. She frowned, tired of the distrust she felt, but the idea that none of them trusted her. It felt again like she was trying to seek some kind of revenge against them, by bringing their secret to light.

She then remembered how sick Keith was.

Taking a deep breath, Pidge rubbed tears from her eyes. Shiro and Coran, that was one thing, them keeping things. The red paladin, on the other hand, wasn't very open to anyone except Shiro. Specifically, though, it seemed as if he struggled with trusting people, as if afraid of getting close, of getting hurt. Pidge glanced at the computer, remembering somewhat how the other girls didn't get along with her because she wasn't "girly" like them.

Keith didn't fit in either.

Looking up, Pidge frowned.

She wasn't sure if she was finding some kind of excuse, but she told herself she was doing this for Keith.

With a little effort, she pulled up the Altean computer, making the system look into Keith and Shiro's DNA structure, to see if they were Altean, but to see if they were also related. Simply put, she chooses to do a non-descript search to examine all of their DNA so that it didn't seem so much like she was doing it on purpose, but simply trying to find answers.

The screen in front of her whirred, the numbers and letters flashing across the screen, calming her, making Pidge forget about her earlier tears. When she worked, she didn't think about things like her missing family, or the possible betrayal of friends. She wasn't expecting anything but a confirmation, so when the computer stopped with the DNA results, Pidge found her brown eyes going wide.

"No way."

She was beautiful.

Kind of like how Allura was.

In fact, he was rather handsome, so different from Coran's geeky frame and looks.

Pidge couldn't help and stare at the two who she'd never seen before, taking in their images, every single detail. Specifically, she couldn't help but notice how much Keith looked like _her_. He was small of frame and her feminine features. More importantly, he had her eyes, though the color was a bit off. Alright, so it was way off, but if Keith was full Altean, then maybe his eyes wouldn't be as dark as they were.

The female Altean's dark locks of hair cascaded around her face, much in the same way Keith's did. Her markings managed to add to the woman's beauty, accentuating the curves on her face, but most of all…

" _Katie, you look so much like your mother._ " Pidge frowned, remembering the comparisons people made between her and her mother, despite the fact she didn't like the prim and properness people also expected. She sighed, still taken away by what she saw, her mind not thinking because of the resemblance between Keith and _that_ woman.

As for the male, there was nothing specific about him, beyond the fact he did look like he could be the sibling of her. Looking at just Keith and him though, you wouldn't be able to tell.

Pidge's eyes blinked, the shock begins to wear off, her eyes now taking in the information regarding the two who popped up. " _Second red paladin, second blue paladin._ "

The youngest paladin looked at the floor then, her cogs slowly working. It explained Keith's attachment to blue, how he was drawn to the lion. Yet there was also the fact Coran – he had to have known. Looking back up, she frowned, wondering why Coran would keep such a thing from them. She wondered as well, how much Keith and Shiro knew. She tried thinking about the occurrence more, trying to figure out how she felt about the information she found out.

She felt angry. She felt betrayed. Pidge's mouth twisted, hot tears not falling as she was all cried out, but now she was just simply pissed off. She wanted to yell at all three of them, to tell them off for lying, for keeping things from them. It seemed like something important to say, to let everyone know of, yet it remained hidden. Pidge took a deep breath, wondering what to do next when her computer started blinking at her.

The green paladin's eyes widened, her eyeglasses slipping from her nose. Her mouth opened, unable to say something, anything. In fact, her computer nearly slipped from her lap. It was honestly too good to be true, but the timing seemed horrible. After all, they needed to be focused on taking out Zarkon, and they'd had the discussion regarding family. Pidge's mouth folded, her shoulders tensing up, her computer clicking shut.

Even Keith sounded like a hypocrite, what with his line about everyone having families when he had his own family right there. And now, she got a message from all of that network scanning she and Hunk set up regarding the distress signals, finding one that matched her father and brother. She swallowed, hot tears falling from the corners of her eyes.

Pidge stood up, her computer clutched tightly to her side. She quickly shut down the Altean computer, but not before quickly opening up her own and saving the data, wondering if she could, in fact, use it later. That, and she really needed to think about how to use that information. She found herself back where she was before, wanting to leave and find her family.

Only, she stopped.

Pushing up her glasses with her finger, she let out a sigh. "Pidge, don't be stupid."

Going alone wasn't a good idea, not when she had others to help. These included at least Hunk and Lance, but she knew that Allura would want to find her father if she could. Glancing away, she wondered if Keith would be the same, or Shiro. Yet, Matt was Shiro's friend, and surely even…

"No. Shiro might be able to help despite his condition, but Keith isn't. If he tried…" Pidge felt her mouth twitch. She folded her arms, clutching her computer to her chest.

Keith was always the first person to rush into things, with no thought to his own wellbeing.

Letting out a sigh, Pidge pushed up her glasses. She needed the team on this, but there was no way that she could let Keith know about this either. Heading forward at that point, she arrived at the lounge. Her throat tightened, seeing the mess that Lance and Hunk made.

More specifically, Keith was fast asleep on the couch, his breathing finally steady. Someone, likely Coran, brought in a device that was allowing the red paladin to breath in some kind of mist like substance, which was in turn likely helping them out. Shiro sat on the opposite couch, one leg crossing the other, his chin down as he himself rested.

Hunk and Lance hovered, way too excited. For them, this was a prime way to do things they normally wouldn't get to do. For Hunk, that meant lots of hugs and snuggles and warm fluffy feelings. For Lance, opportunities to tease Keith and make fun of him, which in turn to seemed to be his favorite activity. Allura now sat nearby, watching Keith breath, and Coran also hovered.

Pidge took a deep breath. "Shiro. Can I talk to you? Privately?"

Coran froze, his eyes widening. Shiro startled from his nap, his skin covered with those spots. "Wait. What?" He looked over at Pidge. "You wanted to talk privately? Why?"

He sounded tired, which made her feel guilty. Her eyes darted over to Keith. "I kind of don't want Keith to hear this, what with his condition being the way it is. He tends to be kind of rash."

"Keith's out cold. He won't hear you."

The green paladin took another breath. "I found them. I found my family."


End file.
